Over 400 writers, artists, performers and musicians from Australia, Africa, Europe, North America and Ireland will take part in this year's Galway Arts Festival, which got its official programme launch in the Radisson on Friday evening.

Festival 2008 also sees the introduction of a new and exciting venue for Galway, the Festival Big Top, located in the heart of the city at the Fisheries Field.

Paul Fahey, Director of the Galway Arts Festival, pictured with John Ashton of Macnas, Festival Manager John Crumlish and founder Padraig Breathnach at the launch of the Galway Arts Festival 2008 programme at the Radisson on Friday.Photo: Declan Monaghan

The Philip Glass Ensemble, Druid, Bill Viola, Joni Mitchell, Omara Portuondo, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Tinariwen, Walker Evans, Blondie, Larry Gelbart, Craig Wright and John Mahoney are just some of the iconic and world renowned artists featured at Galway Arts Festival, which takes place from Monday 14 to Sunday 27 July this year.

Dance, theatre, spectacle, visual art and music from around the world, all feature strongly in this year's programme.

Northlight Theatre Company from Chicago make their Irish debut in Galway with the European premiere of Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright's hilarious new comedy 'Better Late', starring the inimitable John Mahoney of 'Frasier' fame and Mike Nussbaum.

In The Farber Foundry's production 'Molora', South African writer and director Yael Farber explores the extraordinary events of her country's experience of apartheid and its legacy through reworking the Greek classic of 'The Oresteia'. Wildly acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Tania Pérez-Salas from Mexico create a visual feast for the senses with a hugely exciting dance programme set to the music of Vivaldi and Arvo Pärt.

The Festival Big Top, a dynamic, new city centre venue, is host to Australia's Circa, with the European premiere of their new circus-based show 'By the Light of the Stars Which Are No Longer', which is described as a hauntingly beautiful work suffused with longing and wonder. The Festival Big Top will also play host to a line-up of musicians and artists from around the world, including Cuban diva Omara Portuondo, Mali world music maestros Tinariwen in a wonderful double-bill with Mayra Andrade, New Orleans' Preservation Hall Jazz Band, New York legends Blondie and two further double bills featuring KT Tunstall and Tom Baxter and The Dandy Warhols and Ash.

New theatre from Ireland includes Druid's Enda Walsh Season & Druid Debuts. Enda Walsh's new play 'The New Electric Ballroom', which he also directs, features a stellar Irish cast with Rosaleen Linehan, Mikel Murfi and Catherine Walsh and English actress Val Lilley, while the Walsh Season features two of the playwright's new one-act plays, 'Lynndie's Gotta A Gun' and 'Gentrification'. The Druid Debuts feature three new works from talented, fledging writers Maria Elner, Stephen Jones and John McManus directed by Rachel West, Mikel Murfi and Garry Hynes respectively.

Other Irish work includes Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre's darkly comic 'Giselle' which has made an explosive impact on the international stage, astounding audiences and winning over critics with its originality and ambition; the Tobacco Factory's Mimic written and performed by Raymond Scannell, and a site-specific production of Brian Friel's Translations from Ouroboros Theatre in the fantastic setting of Renville Woods in Oranmore.

New Work from Galway includes two world premieres: 'Waiting for Elvis' by Eileen Gibbons from Electric Bridget and Micheál Ó Conghaile's 'Go dTaga do Ríocht' from An Taibhdhearc. Dragonfly Theatre present 'Married to the Sea'; Catastrophe present 'Penguins'; Fíbín present 'Stair na hEireann – Cinnáil'; and a triple bill from Galway Youth Theatre completes the Galway showcase.

A wonderful line-up of musicians from around the globe sees Richard Hawley, The Blue Nile, Iris DeMent, Greg Brown, Alabama 3, The Agnostic Gospel Choir and Nouvelle Vague join forces with a host of Irish musicians, including Lúnasa, Damien Dempsey, Cathy Davey, Dave Geraghty, Lisa Hannigan, Autamata, and ConTempo amongst others to perform in an array of venues throughout Galway city and county.