AUDIENCE participation will be one of the main features of Darlington's annual festival this year.

Three days of festivities are due to take place in the town during the August bank holiday weekend, on the theme of A Festival of Festivals.

Under the umbrella of the one festival, there will be street theatre, buskers, pavement artists, dance, music, food and sculpture.

The organiser, Darlington Borough Council, hopes visitors to the Orange Darlington Festival will join in with the many activities on offer during the event, which runs from Saturday, August 25, to Monday, August 27.

They will have the chance to build sculptures, take their furry friends to teddy bears' picnics and air their own musical talents.

Buskers from Darlington College of Technology and the Bag Daddies Band provided the entertainment at a special launch event yesterday, in Houndgate, while youngsters from the Kids and Co Nursery, at Darlington Town Hall, enjoyed a teddy bears' picnic.

Musical highlights of the festival include teenage tribute band S Club Heaven on the Saturday evening, and a promenade-style show the following day. Abba tribute band Voulez Vous will perform in the finale on Monday night.

Sunday's events include the return of the popular Darlington By The Sea event, which brings the fun of the seaside to the Market Square.

Councillor Dorothy Long, the council's cabinet member for leisure services, said: "Now in its fifth year, the Orange Darlington Festival goes from strength-to-strength."

George Douglas, strategy manager of communications firm Orange, said: "We are delighted to be able to support it and to put something back into the community in which our staff and their families live."