THE streets of Newport will come alive with music, dance and theatre when The Big Splash festival returns for its seventh year.

The family festival will take place this weekend on Saturday and Sunday with a packed roster of street theatre and arts workshops popping up around the city.

More than 20 performing companies from across the UK and beyond will be bringing more than 50 free street theatre shows to Newport, from high wire performers and slapstick to dance and walkabouts.

Performers — including Stopgap Dance Company, Nofit State, 2FacedDance and Les Enfants Terrible — will stage shows at Newport Live’s The Riverfront, before stopping at the University of South Wales city campus, Friars Walk and Commercial Street.

A range of free workshops and activities will also take place at The Riverfront for under fives, from Newport Live’s Tiny Tots hosting a soft place and sports activities to the Flying Start team taking over the mezzanine with creative play workshops.

Other events include English and Welsh theatre workshops from ‘Flossy and Boo’, who delve into stories and adventures through puppetry music and words.

Guests can even learn circus skills as NoFit State transform Newport’s Big Splash into a hive of immersive circus activity where “anything and everything can happen”.

Visitors can also have a go at Wheel Acrobatics, or ‘Rhonrad’, a spectacular acrobatic discipline in which performers execute tricks inside a rolling wheel similar to a hamster wheel.

Wheel Acrobatics beginner sessions will take place at Usk Plaza on Saturday and at John Frost Square on Sunday.

The Grow Wild Team, funded by the Kew Gardens Grow Wild Project, will be based at The Riverfront terrace on both days throughout the festival, offering hands-on gardening experiences.

This includes digging for worms, painting bug pebbles and planting fairy grotto flower pots, with Newport’s own gardening group, the City Seedlings, on hand to help children and parents.

The event is sponsored by Friars Walk and Western Power along with support from The Arts Council of Wales and Newport Live.

Last year more than 10,000 people attended the festival in the city centre and organisers are hoping that this year’s programme will “get crowds in the summer mood”.

For more information on The Big Splash, including listings, visit bigsplashnewport.com