A flavour of carnival fever.

Byline: LAURA DAVIS 

IT MAY seem a bit of a detour but this year's Brouhaha International Festival is visiting Liverpool, Southport and Germany.

After this weekend's launch at Hesketh Park in Southport, the international performers will be piling on a plane to Detmold.

"It's part of the Mythos Carnival," reveals Brouhaha International executive director Giles Agis.

"It marks 2,000 years since the Roman centurions were defeated by the barbarians.

"Then we'll be coming back to Liverpool for the arrival of the rest of the international artists."

This year the festival will pack what was already a very busy 20 days into just 10, culminating with the family-friendly World in Princes Park on August 1. The event starts with the region's largest free multicultural parade, the Liverpool International Carnival, leaving Mulberry Street at 12pm and following a route through Liverpool city centre, arriving at the park around 2pm.

Bright costumes, dance and drum beats aim to celebrate the colourful mosaic of the city's culture, in an event featuring more than 300 performers from five continents.

Highlights of World in Princes Park, which last year attracted crowds of around 40,000 people, include a newly-commissionehip hop dance project dealing with the problem of youth gun and knife crime.

There will also be a live music stage, an urban arts stage and a dance stage as well as stalls selling food from across the globe.

Most events over the 10 days will be held outside Liverpool city centre, in an effort to engage local communities.

Although many aspects of the festival will be familiar to those who have taken part in previous years, there are some brand new elements.

"There's Music Talks in which local international bands are working together to create new work and we're holding a series of showcases at Studio 2 on Parr Street," says Agis.

Community events will be held in Olive Mount and Mabb Lane centres, while the Unity Theatre will host four days of performances.

Each one will bring a different cultural flavour to its audience, with urban hip hop theatre from Martinique, Holland and Germany on the first night.

New music from Trinidad and Tobago, Portugal and Malta, and music, dance and theatre from Spain, Italy, Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt will also be showcased.

Brouhaha is currently building a year round programme that will see performers and artists from Liverpool travelling to festivals all over the world.

The organisation has received a European cultural grant of 200,000 euros which will be used to fund four projects, including the trip to Germany.

"We're going to Volos in Greece to take part in a carnival of the sea and to Istanbul in 2010 which will be the European Capital of Culture for a carnival event along the waterfront," says Agis.

"Liverpool artists and performers will be taking part in all these events."

Another project involves working with schools close to Taipei for the the Low Carbon Festival in Taiwan.

Brouhaha is also applying for European Commission funding to enable artists to become more mobile throughout the EU.

* BROUHAHA International Festival runs from July 19 to August 1. Further details at www.brouhaha.uk.com

CAPTION(S):

One of the striking carnival costumes from last year's Liverpool International Carnival