ORGANISERS are ready to hail the 10th anniversary of Kidderminster Arts Festival as the ‘ best ever’.

KAF 2013 has been in full swing in all corners of the town over the past two weeks.

Acts and visitors have come from across the UK for the festival, organised by Wyre Forest District Council, and there has been great feedback on the magnificent Carpet Forest in the town hall and square.

Early indications suggest that the 10th anniversary KAF will be the best yet.

Loz Samuels, the district council’s arts development officer, said: “It’s great to see KAF inspiring the public with the best of local and national talent and getting more and more people involved and enthusiastic about the arts.”

The past seven days has highlighted a mix of music, fun and strange sights.

On Thursday, The Lady and The Sax blew Kidderminster away with their toe-tapping tunes and even got some members of the public up and dancing on the carpet square.

The irresistible charm of weary travellers Hodman Dodmanott and Sally Forth saw them make swathes of new friends and brought smiles to the faces of the town’s people.

On Friday, the Chandelier Horse Company from Worcester visited the town hall with their show Limbo, which revolves around a ‘big brother-style’ concept in which four people are held in a box for 12 hours and faced with a series of challenges.

The show attracted more people through the door than it had done the week before at the Edinburgh Festival and it was also streamed live on the internet.

On Saturday, the Whalley Range All Stars’ giant pig visited the carpet square outside the town hall.

On the outside, it is a large pink, snoring pig but, on the inside, a 10-minute show is acted out to 10 lucky members of the public peering through holes in the pig’s belly.

A drumming workshop was a near sell-out and received glowing reviews while Clay Time, a play with clay, proved popular with the children. They were able to make their own characters out of the clay provided and the cast of the show use them in the following performance.

Today, there will be a large variety of events taking place around the town. At 11.45am and 1pm, renowned slack rope walker Kwabana Lindsay, who has taken his show all around the world, will be visiting Kidderminster for the first time.

At 12.30pm and 2pm, there well be ‘Terry’s Carpet Bizarre’ which is perfectly suited to Kidderminster as Terry and his sales assistant Vic take the audience on a hilarious adventure through the thrilling world of carpets.

The district council’s very own choir will also be performing popular sing-along classics on their debut appearance in the town.

The festival concludes with a jam-packed Friday and Saturday. Jolly Holiday, an extremely eccentric family visiting KAF on holiday for the first time, will be sure to be asking the locals about the nearby tourist attractions and causing a stir on Saturday.

The ‘Spurting Man’ will be standing proud outside the town hall on Saturday as he gradually transforms from human to human fountain over the course of a show set to Ravel’s Bolero.

The town hall’s new temporary feature ‘The Carpet Forest’ has been a huge hit with the public and has succeeded in bringing to life the town’s past as the centre of the carpet industry.

It combines contemporary designs of the trees with the timeless carpet designs with a smattering of history in the form of the trees that tell stories from the carpet mills of yesteryear.

The forest is due to be removed after the festival ends on Sunday and is looking for a new home.

Loz Samuels said “For such a magnificent piece of art to go to waste would be a huge shame and after loads of positive comments received from the public I’m sure the people of Kidderminster would think the same.

“We are currently in talks with a number of galleries and exhibition spaces around the region but would still be interested to hear from any other interested parties.”