Celtic sights and sounds will give this year's Bradford Festival a colourful start.

The 12th annual summer celebration will be launched in Centenary Square at lunchtime tomorrow.

And after the ceremony, which will also see the famous photographs of the Cottingley Fairies and the cameras used to take them returning to Bradford, the festival will swing into life with the weekend-long Guinness Festival Fling in the square.

A celebration of the best new Celtic music, dance and performance, it runs from tomorrow until Sunday each afternoon and evening and is free.

Centenary Square will be transformed throughout the fling and for the rest of the festival into Caf Bradford, an open-air venue offering live entertainment, hot food and drink and a festival market.

Festival spokesman Rob Walsh said: "The Guinness Festival Fling will be the biggest feast of Celtic music seen in the city for a long time. We're very excited by the event and all the continuing entertainment in Caf Bradford.

"It's going to be a cracker - and hosting the return of the Cottingley Fairies cameras is a real honour."

Among the bands performing at the Guinness Festival Fling are the Peat Bog Faeries from Skye, the Tartan Amoebas, Irish band Kila and the legendary Bradford-born Brendan Croker and friends with Celtic Chaos.

Before the festival gets under way proper, officials from the National Museum of Photography Film and Television will be on hand to accept a collection of Cottingley Fairies memorabilia which will go on show in Bradford.

After the ceremony, which is due to take place at 12.15pm tomorrow, there will be a special free screening of the film Fairy Tale: A True Story, at Pictureville Cinema at 4pm.

The festival continues until July 11, with other highlights including the Mela in Peel Park on July 4 and 5. See the Telegraph & Argus every day for latest festival news.

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