JOSE Carreras, Eric Bibb, Sir James Galway, Bernard MacLaverty, Dervish, Owen McCafferty and Jonathan Aitken are just some of the headline attractions at this year's Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's.
The festival, launched yesterday at Belfast City Airport under the slogan 'Passport to the Arts', features more than 70 music, theatre, dance, literary, family, visual arts and film events between October 17 and 27.
A total of 24 countries will be represented in the programme, from Brazil to Bosnia and from Australia to Austria.
Festival director Richard Wakely said he the 51st instalment of the BFQ truly has something for everyone. "The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's is one of only a handful of European arts festivals that can deliver such diversity boasting an eclectic mix of world-class dance, theatre, classical music, jazz, roots based music, visual arts, talks and film," he said. "It's exciting to welcome the international arts community to Belfast and to see these performers share the billing with our finest local talent. And with 95 per cent of all our shows priced at £16 and under it is there to be enjoyed by everyone."
The spectacular opening event next month will be the revelation of internationally acclaimed artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada's 11-acre land art portrait Wish in the city's Titanic Quarter.
Having unveiled similarly stunning 'terrestrial' pieces in Barcelona and Amsterdam, Jorge's portrait of a young Belfast girl will be his first work of art on the island of Ireland.
The other opening day event on October 17 will be a concert at the Waterfront Hall by world-famous tenor Jose Carreras, who will perform with Irish soprano Celine Byrne.
A nod of the hat to the old 'Guinness Spot' at the festival in years gone by, this year's event will see the launch of The Music Club at the Elmwood Hall.
The intimate venue will host a mix of indie, jazz, blues and Irish traditional acts, while Portuguese fado star Carminho should prove to be one of the most popular headliners, following in the footsteps of 2011 festival performer Ana Moura.
US band Hem and Scandinavian acts Girls in Airports, Oddarrang and Efterklang are also worth catching at The Music Club, as are Iarla O'Lionaird and Steve Cooney as well as Dervish with guests The Henry Girls.
One of the most exciting names in the whole programme, however, is the massively talented American blues artist Eric Bibb. Book your tickets now for that one.
The theatre strand at the festival promises to be pretty sensational this year.
Audience participation is key in both Roger Bernat's theatrical experiment in political theatre Pending Vote (in which every audience member gets a remote control voting device) and Bullet Catch - a stunt so dangerous that Houdini refused to try it - from Rob Drummond.
The Gare St Lazare Players Ireland will bring Beckett's Waiting for Godot to Belfast following a run at the Dublin Theatre Festival, while Kabosh production Belfast By Moonlight and The Conquest of Happiness by Prime Cut also come highly rated.
The Shankill's Spectrum Centre will be the setting for the play Crimea Square, while off the Falls Road - in Clonard Monastery - La Serenissima will perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons.
Another classical event is An Evening of Brahms and Early Music from Ars Nova Copenhagen at St Gerard's Church on the Antrim Road.
The Mac is the venue for dance shows Memories d'una Puca (from Catalonia's Sol Pico Cia De Danza) and a newly commissioned piece from Belfast dance group Maiden Voyage.
Talks include Simon Singh's investigation of the mathematical aspects of The Simpsons, award-winning Guardian columnist Gary Younge's interpretation of Martin Luther King, Jonathan Aitken discussing Margaret Thatcher and Bernard MacLaverty marking the publication of his new Collected Stories. There will also be a film noir series at the QFT with screenings of Double Indemnity, The Killers, The Last Seduction, Night Moves and The Big Sleep, among others.
One of the standout family events is a collaboration between the East Belfast Arts Festival and Feile an Phobail, in which Tumble Circus present their show Damn the Circus in both Belmont Park and Falls Park.
n The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's runs from October 17 to 27.
For tickets and information, visit www. belfastfestival.com or call 028 9097 1197.