OSCAR-WINNING actress Vanessa Redgrave is to lead the children's parade which will open this year's Brighton Festival.
As festival guest director, she will have a major input into the event which is to take place from 5 to 27 May 2012.
Ms Redgrave said that although she had been involved in important arts events before, this was her first festival.
"It's a wonderful thing to me that I've been asked to really be part of this festival," she said.
Ms Redgrave is well-known for her political activism and campaigning for human rights and follows last year’s guest director, the Burmese pro-Democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, in that tradition.
This year's Brighton Festival, which was launched on Wednesday evening, will include 143 events and 351 performances, some of which will include Vanessa Redgrave herself.
Andrew Comben, who is chief executive of the festival, said: "I am really delighted that she (Vanessa) will lead the children's parade. It's a fantastic symbol of everything that is important for Brighton Festival and its basis in the community."
Article courtesy of Love Brighton, the free weekly paper for Brighton and Hove.
