Proposed plans for this year's Colchester Festival have been unveiled with a programme that will pack the town with music, song and laughter over three weeks.

What will be the biggest festival ever to take place in the town will hopefully include regular events such as the Samba Ramble, Colchester Cloth Fair and the High Woods History Fair with other attractions such as plays, historical re-enactments and a world music day.

Some of the other proposed highlights include a festival to the estates weekend, which will involve mini-buses taking entertainers to various housing estates around the town, a film festival and a season of Shakespearean plays.

As part of the festivities, a tent will be put up on the Hollytrees lawn in Castle Park, where various plays and musical nights will be put on over two weeks.

One event already pencilled in for the festival is the National Town Cryer Championships, due to take place in Culver Square on September 11, and involving more than 30 town cryers from all over the country.

Published Thursday January 15, 2004

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