Hudsons Café in Castle Street will be the venue for a packed programme of arts events, becoming the Fringe Café for the duration of the festival.

The idea is to offer an opportunity to many artists and performers to showcase their work, and acts ranging from poets to flautists, film makers to songwriters and actors to fiddlers will be on show.

Banff and Buchan Arts Forum are behind the Fringe programme.

The work of artists David Watson Hood, Dianne Sutherland, Helen Harrison and Mick Eason will be exhibited in the café from Friday, until the close of the event on Monday.

Film maker from Fraserburgh, Mark Jackson, will screen his BAFTA-nominated short film 'Seaside' in the café on Saturday and Sunday evening. He is making his debut in Banff.

He recently received an arts award from the Banff and Buchan Arts Forum.

Alongside Mark will be a collection of performers, – also grant recipients from the forum – and visual artists who will exhibit their work in the café over the weekend.

The forum's secretary, Jay Wilson said: "We are so fortunate to have such a high calibre of talent in this area.

David Hood has just finished exhibiting in Duff house and was short listed for the 2007 Eco Prize Scotland; while Dianne Sutherland was awarded a silver medal by the RHS at the Gardeners World Live Exhibition in 2006, and has exhibited work in galleries throughout Scotland and England".

Well known local poet, John Mackie, starts proceedings at the Fringe Café on Saturday evening at 7.30pm, when he will be accompanied by former Banff Academy fiddler, Kelsey Macphee. They have collaborated together at several events throughout Moray, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

Later in the evening, John will link up with Adrian Baille to perform as Infinite Equation, when they will literally 'animate air' with their unique mix of poetry and guitar music.

Kate James, from Banff, tasted success when a song she wrote and performed reached number 4 in the folk section of MySpace's on-line musical showcase on the internet. She also reached the semi-finals of last year's UK Songwriting Contest.

Marie Christie from Boyndie, who attends the Dyce Academy of Music, will play a selection of flute solos. Recently she was accepted onto the National Youth Orchestra's of Scotland winter course, and performed at Glasgow's Royal Concert Hall, as well as the Concert Hall in Perth.

Banff's Sarah Ord, who was granted a widely coveted acting place at the Scottish Youth Theatre last summer, has been rehearsing hard for her performance, despite her school exams and other community commitments she is well known for locally.

The Blue Salt Collective performed throughout Aberdeenshire at the Word Fringe festival earlier this month, and will join the line up on Sunday evening, combining poetry with visual imagery.

In addition to the performances and art exhibition, the Forum will be running an Art In The Environment competition.

Ten photographs of art and artefacts sited in Banff and Macduff will also be on display at the Fringe Café, and diners and audiences will be invited to identify the whereabouts of the artwork.

boardman_g@spp-group.com

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