THE full lineup for this year's Bewdley Festival has now been announced.

The festival will take place between Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 21 and feature a range of guests.

Poet Laureate Simon Armitage will be returning to Bewdley on the opening night of the festival and brings with him the musical accompaniment of LYR.

LYR is a band comprised of Simon, singer-songwriter Richard Walters and multi-instrumentalist & producer Patrick Pearson.

On the first Saturday, Kev Sutherland will be showing younger children (over 7 years of age) how simple it is to create their own comic with his Comic Art Masterclass.

In the evening, comedian Shaparak Khorsandi brings her unique brand of humour to the Tree Tops Pavilion at West Midland Safari Park, focusing on growing up with her show “It Was The 90s”.

The Tree Tops Pavillion will also be hosting long-standing folk-rock heroes Lindisfarne the following night for a sold-out show.

Monday afternoon will feature historian and author Peter Clark, who will discuss his book titled The Men of 1924, the story of the first-ever Labour government.

The evening brings Soul II Soul star, DJ, and writer Jazzie B to the stage who will talk about his new book Reflections of My Journey.

On Tuesday morning, Brett Westwood returns with his latest talk about the world of nature.

Also on Tuesday, the trio “Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists” will be performing as well as author and broadcaster Lemn Sissay.

On Wednesday, international actor and writer Michael Mears will bring his latest two-person play The Mistake to the festival, which is about the events at Hiroshima.

Music legend Joni Mitchell is 80 in November and in homage to her career, band-leader and arranger Stefan Redtenbacher has created “Both Sides Now – Joni Reimagined”. The show brings a collection of interpretations of Joni’s catalogue.

On Thursday, there will be a morning screening of the new film Vermeer: The Greatest Exhibition.

The controversial cartoonist from The Guardian, Martin Rowson, is speaking about “Giving The Gift of Offence" on Thursday afternoon.

Scientist, doctor and broadcaster Adam Rutherford will host an evening at the festival based around his work Control; The Dark History & Troubling Present of Eugenics.

Friday afternoon brings author Mike Gayle speaking about his work and his career in writing over the last twenty-five years.

The festival will welcome radio personality Jane Garvey on Friday evening. Jane knows Bewdley well from her time at BBC H&W.

The second Saturday of this year’s main festival features the curator of Tutbury Castle Lesley Smith, wearing period dress in this year’s character of Katherine Swynford.

In the evening, one of the UK’s leading string quartets, The Carducci String Quartet, will be performing Mozart, Dvorak and Beethoven.

A week later on Saturday 21, radio legend Bob Harris will return to the festival, this time with Beatles expert Colin Hall. Their show focuses on “The Songs The Beatles Gave Away” and includes unique footage of Lennon & McCartney with Bob.

Tickets for all events are available at https://boxoffice.bewdleyfestival.org.uk