PROGRAMMES with full details of Charles Causley Festival events are now available for the public to pick up.

The festival will coincide with the school May Whitsun holiday, taking place between Friday, June 3, and Sunday, June 5.

Many of the events are free, and tickets for all other events are available from Launceston Tourist Information Centre.

This year sees many events planned especially tailored for young people, which would have appealed to the poet who was a schoolteacher in Launceston.

Events will include, on Saturday, a free drop-in print workshop with Swanskin at the Town Hall — who created the design on the front of the programmes.

The idea for the Swanskin group came from Launceston artist printmaker Sophie Fordham. The Swanskin group is made up of professional fine artists and they held their first show last year in the Liberty Suite at Jericho’s Café entitled ‘Gathering words’.

The Feast and the Arts Council, the Charles Causley Festival Committee, Cornwall Council and Launceston Town Council funded Swanskin’s first joint venture.

Now, they will be holding a workshop to help inspire young artists and give the public a chance to create their own ‘Portrait of Causley’ or a personal portrait, to contribute to a ‘Portrait of Launceston’.

To find out more about the group, visit www.swanskin.co.uk

As part of the Charles Causley festival there will also be live performance poetry with Martin Daws, which young people can join in with.

Slam poet Ben Norris will also be taking part in the festival and on Saturday evening Anna Maria Murphy and Rick Williams will warm up the audience before Lemn Sissay MBE takes to the stage.

This year’s festival will also feature a wide range of talks, walks, workshops, music performances and films — there really is something for everyone.