PREPARE to enter the Twilight Zone at this year s Royston Arts Festival. Final preparations are being made for the festival, which beings today (Thursday September 24) and runs through until Sunday September 26. Activities will be taking place all weekend

PREPARE to enter the Twilight Zone at this year's Royston Arts Festival.

Final preparations are being made for the festival, which beings today (Thursday September 24) and runs through until Sunday September 26.

Activities will be taking place all weekend at various locations around Royston, one of which will see visitors filled in on some of the town's strangest stories.

The Royston's Twilight Zone walk will see Kathy Wholley and David Atkins lead a 45 minute tour of the town.

Mr Atkins said: "Many people have followed the excellent town trail devised by F. John Smith, which covers Royston's public history, but we wanted to tell some of the lesser known tales and anecdotes about the ordinary townspeople.

"These stories range from the funny to the sad to the downright spooky, and the organisers promise a few surprises on the way."

If you'd like to hear about shop where the bed came through the ceiling, or the tale of the haunted hairdresser, meet the tour leaders in the car park at the bottom of Market Hill at 8.30pm on Sunday.

Meanwhile Corvus Amateur Dramatic Society (CADS) will be premiering their latest production - The Farndale Avenue House Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society Murdery Mystery - Murder at Checkmate Manor - at the festival.

Director Emma Daintrey said: "Royston audiences always appreciate a good comedy and the Farndale ladies once again provide laughs and mayhem as they attempt to perform their murder mystery play accompanied by their haphazard scenery, dodgy sound effects and delightfully awful acting abilities.

"It's suitable for all the family so I'd highly recommend coming to watch daft people do even dafter things at Checkmate Manor while they try to work out who the murderer is," she said.

Performances are on Friday 25 September at 7.30 pm and Sunday 27 September at 5pm, and take place at Greneway School. Tickets are �7 and �5 and can be bought on the door.

More information on the Arts Festival programme, which includes art, craft, and music events, and much more besides, can be found at www.roystonartsfest.org.

*For full coverage of the festival see next week's Crow.