Galway Arts Festival will highlight some of the very best of Irish and international comics showcasing new work and ideas with performances from Ed Byrne, David O'Doherty, Des Bishop, Steve Hall, Pappy's Fun Club, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, and Gerry Mallon's Laughter Loft.

Literary events at Festival 2008 include leading theatre critic Michael Billington in conversation with Vincent Woods, readings and discussion with The Sunday Times Foreign Correspondent Christina Lamb and US writer Dan Kennedy, and the great punk poet John Cooper Clarke in performance.

The annual Macnas Festival Parade is this year a spectacular, night-time event and the free outdoor performance and spectacle programme also includes Holland's Close-Act and Belgium's Cirq Moustique adding to the magic and diversity of this year's programme. Work for younger audiences includes the world premiere of a unique performance of interactive storytelling and street theatre from Cups and Crowns in Captain McKeone's Secret Walking Tour of Galway and Tall Stories' How the Giraffe Got Its Neck.

Bill Viola is recognised as one of the world's leading visual artists - for Galway Arts Festival, Viola exhibits six of his works in venues throughout the city. Other international visual artists exhibiting include Canadian sculptor and installation artist Max Streicher, American photographer Walker Evans and contemporary US artist Rainer Ganahl.

Famed as a musician, Joni Mitchell is also a visual artist and brings to Galway a body of new work Green Flag Song, dealing with the consequences of war. Irish work includes five major group shows Darkness Visible; The Plinian Sponge, maybe?; Subjected; MART and Artspace, with solo exhibitions from Philip Lindey, Ruth McHugh, Pauline Bewick and Kevin Mooney.

For tickets, log onto www.galwayartsfestival.com, www.ticketmaster.ie and usual outlets nationwide.

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