AMBITIOUS plans have been unveiled for a festival which celebrates Colchester’s “unique cultural identity”.

Destination Colchester will put on the two week A Festival of Colchester in September.

The team will work with Our Colchester BID, Colchester Life and venues across the town to put on a fortnight of theatre, films, tours and talks.

The programme will be themed around storytelling, nursery rhymes and legends which have a special relevance to Colchester.

It will explore the town’s links to nursery rhymes Humpty Dumpty and Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star and literary connections with Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World.

The festival will get underway on Friday August 30, with a special opening event, and end on Sunday September 16.

It will coincide with a number of planned events while also introducing street entertainment, ghost hunts, art trails, poetry readings and comedy.

Organisers are now calling on the public to help put on the festival.

Simon Taylor, of Destination Colchester, said: “We began thinking about a festival for this September early in 2018, and returned to the idea a few weeks ago when we realised that some great events are already taking place in the fortnight that we had identified.

“The plan is to support these and build a much fuller programme around them, looking at a festival like Salisbury or Norfolk and Norwich as a potential long term objective.

“It will be a lot of hard work but things are already coming together well and each new idea or event seems to lead on to other opportunities.

“Everyone we’ve spoken to so far has been really enthusiastic. There is an obvious will to make this happen and we’re throwing everything we have at achieving this goal.

“It’s really important our friends and neighbours in the community are included.

“This is A Festival of Colchester, by Colchester, for Colchester.”

To help with fundraising or to volunteer email hello@festivalscolchester.com.