After months of silence we're back and are happy to announce that the Bardic Picnic returns on Sunday the 24th of July for a third year for what we hope will be another great day of spoken word, music and festival hi-jinks!

Despite government cuts, the Northampton Community Foundation are kindly supporting us for another year with a grant for £1000. Although this is less than previous years, we are going to be pulling out all the stops to try and ensure that this Bardic Picnic is as great a day out as the previous year's, if not better.

So far our main stage will be graced by at least two official bards. The first is last year's winner the Bard of Northampton, Joe Bunn, who I'm sure will be full of surprises. Joe has for the last year, been running in partnership with Alice Heavyside, a very successful cabaret evening 'The Missing Piece' at Northampton's Labour Club, which has raised hundreds of pounds for various charities. He has also appeared in his capacity as bard at various events in Nortahmpton and beyond.

The second bard is the recently elected Bard of Stony Stratford: Ian Freemantle. Ian is a man who is firmly rooted in the folk traditions of the land, a dread-locked traveller of many seasons past and a poet of passion that speaks out against social injustice. And if that isn't rousing enough he will also be accompanied by the Stony Stepper clog dancers.

Ian doesn't arrive from Stony Stratford alone though, the cross-pollination continues as Richard Frost (ex Shaman of the North) brings his highly successful open-mic event, 'Scribal Gathering' as a fully formed installation to curate the open-mic stage. Just as 'Ripping Pages' Capel Spence did so successfully last year, it falls to Richard's more than capable hands to do this time around, so if you have a yen to perform this year please arrive early to avoid disappointment.All are welcome.

We are also pleased to announce that returning to rock your souls once again are Northampton's most Irie troubadours, 'Celtic Rasta'. Last year the soul rebels rocked us well after sundown even after we were compelled to pull the plugs and we went acoustic. Expect to be rocked again this year as the boys(and girl) of Celtic Rasta take us to the foothills of Zion and beyond.

In order to keep the integrity of the spoken word and the bardic tradition we felt it was important to have a quieter area for storytelling, so this year they'll be an opportunity to listen to some great storytellers away from the madding crowd in the magical setting of the wooded garden area. Here you can hear professional and amateur storytellers weave tall and traditional tales or indeed have a go yourself.

The days schedule is still being formed so if you are a poet, storyteller or musician or indeed a dancer or juggler or any kind of performer and would like to get involved, please get in touch through by contacting us here. We are committed to promoting cultural and ethnic diversity and helping to build inter-cultural links within the community, so performers from all backgrounds and levels of ability are welcome.

Also, if you are not a performer and think you can help us in any way either with help setting up and taking down, as a first aider, area-co-ordinator, steward or if you would like a stall at the event again please e-mail us here. Please watch this space for a full list of help needed.

I should also mention that the Umbrella Fair Organisation have kindly offered there support this year and we will be working closely with them to make the Bardic Picnic 2011 another great cultural day out for the community. Oh and lastly although we are always grateful for donations, the Bardic Picnic is as usual FREE! Look forward to seeing you there. WORD!