TOP International outdoor performers and artists from across the world are set to dazzle audiences across Cumbria in this year’s Lakes Alive programme.

A line-up of spectacular shows has been announced that includes captivating musical installations, breathtaking fireworks, giant puppetry, modern dance, and French cabaret and circus.

Opening on August 9/10 at the historic harbour of Whitehaven, which will be transformed by the Catalan theatre company Xarxa’s show Fire of the Sea, Lakes Alive culminates on the weekend of August 30 and September 1 with Mintfest. That is when crowds flock from far and wide to Kendal for the International Festival of Street Arts.

In between, from August 10-12, visitors to the Lake District Visitors Centre at Brockhole will be spellbound by Audible Forces, a soundscape of musical installations powered by the wind.

The installations have been created by seven different sound artists, including Max Easley, whose work inspired the project. He has built a towering musical structure in the form of a set of bow shaped instruments. And well-known Cumbrian Dan Fox has installed a Howling Wire, a 12-metre-high structure made from recycled military and orchestral hardware.

Elsewhere, from August 14-16, Lakes Alive is on tour with evening shows from French act La Famille Goldini and British dance company Motionhouse (Captive) at Millom (14th), Cleator Moor (15th), and an afternoon performance in Whitehaven (16th).

Julie Tait, director of Kendal Arts International, which creates Lakes Alive, said festival organisers were really happy to again attract some of the best performance artists in Europe Further details are on www.lake-salive.org