THE Wye River Festival looks set to start with a bang in Hereford this weekend with two days of activities and performances planned.

Organisers hope that the festival, which runs between April 29 to May 15, will become internationally recognised and attract more than the 20,000 who visited in 2014.

The festival officially begins on Hereford's Bishop's Meadow tonight (Friday) when performance group The Water Ones will bring an intriguing cast of river characters - hermits, fishers, washerwomen, poachers and musicians – to the riverside site from 7.30pm.

Entertainment will include circus tricks, aerial dance, comic performance, music and a procession of illuminated water monsters and river carnival lanterns.

On Saturday the attention turns to the Hereford River Carnival which promises plenty of family fun between 10am and 6pm.

Street processions, puppet creations, water rituals – along with aqua play – are all planned on the Saturday on sites including Left Bank, the Castle Green, Villa Street and the Bishop's Meadow.

Herefordshire Mind’s Get Set to Go project will be among those hosting free sports activity tasters and will also be holding a prize draw for sports equipment vouchers, all in the aim of improving mental health.

Meanwhile, on the Sunday the festival's activities move to Ross-on-Wye with activities being held on Rope Walk – between 11am and 5pm – alongside Ross Beer Fest at the town's rowing club.

There will also be a performance by the specially-formed Wye Valley Festival Choir.

The action moves down the river on the Bank Holiday Monday when a ceremonial canoe will be launched at Bishopswood with festival flags carried down to Lydbrook Tump. Festivities there run from 12noon to 5pm.

And from May 4 to May 6 and May 11 to May 13, the River Festival Caravans will be heading into the countryside to seek out folk who want to unravel the mysteries of the Wye's water. They will create mini happenings at small communities and schools.

The festival will then head out of the county with further events in Lydbrook, Redbrook, Tintern, Monmouth, Symonds Yat, Tintern and Llandogo before ending with a grand finale on May 15, at Chepstow Racecourse

For more information visit www.wyevalleyaonb.org.uk