BASINGSTOKE Festival 2014 is currently in full swing!

Hundreds of events are taking place all over the borough until July 13.

Basingstoke Gazette:

Here, we take a closer look at some of what's in store in week three.

Andy Robertshaw, Basingstoke Discovery Centre, Today, July 3 - 7pm

ANDY, the military consultant for the film War Horse, will visit the Festival Place library tonight.

Andy will reveal his behind-the-scenes stories, military insight and on-set photographs during a unique presentation marking 100 years since the First World War.

The curator/manager of The Royal Logistic Corps Museum in Deepcut, Andy is also a regular on Channel 4's Time Team and featured in BBC Two's Men in a Trench series. Tickets: £5 from 01256 478670, online via hants.gov.uk/shop or visit Basingstoke Discovery Centre in person.

Basingstoke Festival of Choirs, The Anvil, Sunday, July 6, 7pm

GUY Slater, founder of the Horseshoe Theatre Company, is to return to town to narrate Basingstoke Festival of Choirs' A Century of War and Peace concert.

The event commemorates the outbreak of World War I performed by over 400 voices from Basingstoke and Deane's finest choirs, who'll be joined by the Heritage Light Orchestra.

It will featuring a wide range of war-and-peace themed music from the last 100 years, from well-known wartime songs to more recent music of reconciliation, culminating in a sequence of movements from The Armed Man by Karl Jenkins.

Guy formed the Horseshoe, a professional repertory and touring company, in 1974.

Tickets: £15, over 65s £13, under 16s £8. Box office: 01256 844244, anvilarts.org.uk.

Basingstoke Amateur Operatic Society & Limelight, Basing House Great Barn, Sunday, July 6, 2.30pm

Basingstoke Gazette:

PERFORMANCE featuring operatic performances of songs from current and past famous West End show musicals such as Hairspray, Blood Brothers, Les Miserables, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wicked, The Lion King and Matilda.

Visitors to the show can enjoy a picnic and eat in the courtyard meadow by the Great Barn before the show from 12.30pm.

Tickets: £10 for an adult and £7 for under 16s, which includes entry to Basing House. Family tickets (two adults and two children or one adult and three children) are £25. Box office: 01256 463965, 11am - 4pm each day except Friday. Culture All, Basing House Annual Pass or discount vouchers are not valid for this event.

Top Hat Weekend, Various locations 

GRASSROOTS street performers will be popping up all over the town.

Catch the most colourful and unpredictable of performances unfolding before your eyes around the Top of the Town, The Malls and Festival Place and on Festival Square's Summer Stage.

The Whizzers: Saturday, July 5 - 11am and 12 noon at The Malls, 2pm and 3pm in the Top of the Town

These small, speedy, imp-like characters, almost conical in shape and childlike in size. They perform mesmeric gliding dances in which they whizz around people at great speed or spin slowly and beautifully in their own style of choreographed ballet.

Fairly Famous Family's The Lifeguards: Saturday, July 5 - 11am and 12.30pm in Top of the Town, 2pm and 3pm in The Malls

Street theatre with the Lifeguards perched high on their chairs, making your stroll through The Malls and the Top of the Town a different experience.

Motionhouse's Captive: Sunday, July 6 - 12 noon and 3.30pm at Market Square outside The Willis Museum

Basingstoke Gazette:

Inspired by Maria Rike's poem The Panther, now Basingstoke can witness this dazzling display of dance and aerial work set inside a huge cage.

Sid The Wheelie Bin from the Bureau of Silly Ideas: Sunday, July 6 - 11am, 12.30pm, 2pm and 3pm at the Top of the Town

Normally dependable roadside furniture takes on a life of its own… watch out where you put your rubbish while Sid's in town!

Jelly Rollers' Dragon Machine: Sunday, July 6 - 11am to 3.30pm in Market Square outside The Willis Museum

It's a mechanical curiosity - a 13ft high dragon of great age and cantankerous nature. This marvel of grime and grease is a hand cranked mechanical wonder. The fearless and curious are invited to step forward and turn the half-dozen handles which animate the dragon.

Jan Jack's Introduction to Presenting with Humour: Saturday, July 5, 10am-12pm, Red Lion Hotel 

Promoter of Basingstoke comedy club Laughter-House Jan Jack’s two hour taster session on how to write a funny line or two. 

The cost is £35. Book online at janjacktaster.eventbrite.co.uk or through janjack.co.uk/comedy-workshops. 

Some of the other events in week three

Bugsy Malone, Central Studio
Sherfest!
Hannington Silver Band, Eastrop Park
The Artists Rifles exhibition, Willis Museum
From Silk to Paper - walk from Whitchurch Silk Mill to Old Laverstoke Paper Mill

Details of the full programme are online at basingstokefestival.co.uk.