The themes for this year's event – which features performers from Spain, Croatia, Denmark as well as local talent – are wind and water.

Between May 23 and June 1, a total of 180 events will take place across the city, including storytelling, workshops, theatre, exhibitions and puppetry.

Festival director Ali FitzGibbon said, while the performances would keep the younger audiences entertained, the event would also have a much more enriching effect.

"It's about giving children memories, ideas and why that life can be," she said.

"With so much pressure on education and achieving at the moment, there has to be room for something different in their lives.

"If you introduce children to the arts it gives them the power to step outside the everyday, as well as inspiring and encouraging them."

Among the standout events are a production of Sinbad, which will take place in a swimming pool, an adaptation of Beowulf, the ever-popular Baby Raves and The Urban Arts Akidemy, which lets children try their hands at a range of skills from DJing to fashion design.

"The event I'm most excited about is the weekend in the Waterworks Park in north Belfast," Ali said, adding that she was looking forward to what would be a new venue for the festival.

"I'm also excited about the show Parachutes – a Croatian production which is quite unusual but also very funny."

Ali said there is always an additional challenge when it comes to putting on entertainment for younger audiences.

"It's easier to find good quality work, but children are very critical and you have to be sure that what you're presenting to them is of a high standard.

"An adult audience will wait to the interval to leave if they don't like something, or politely sit through a performance and chalk it up to experience afterwards.

"Children will just get up and start talking once they stop being interested."

However, with more than 11,000 people at last year's festival – and many of the events sold out – it continues to be a popular draw.

Among those who will be appearing at the 2008 festival are Rory O'Connor, whose Story Cubes are an innovative hand-held device which randomly generate images which children can weave into a narrative.

"They help with creativity, imagination and improvisation skills," he said.

"It's not about doing it right or wrong, the Story Cubes are about creating a safe space for children and their parents to explore ideas."

Also at the launch was Kresanna Aigner, who will be producing a children's version of the Glitter and Sparkle event specially for the festival.

Dazzle and Twinkle is aimed at four to eight-year-olds and will use visuals, lights, music props and performances to engage the audiences.

"The children can come dressed up in dazzling costumes for what will be a participatory event where they are encouraged to join in and become part of the show themselves," she said.

"It's very spontaneous, and changes based on how the children react and interact – and they're a lot more responsive to these kinds of things than adults."

Speaking at the launch, Arts Council chief executive Roisin McDonagh praised "a festival with a personality of its own", and pointed to its "youthful exuberance as an event which is fresh, exciting and
inventive".

"For many children, this is their first real contact with the arts, and they will not be let down," she said.

"They are the potential adult audiences of tomorrow but, more importantly, they are very real and deserving today, not for the sake of the grown-up they will be, but the children they are now."

For more information or to book tickets, contact the box office on 9023 0804 or log on to www.belfastchildrensfestival.com