The international family festival bOing! is growing up.

Celebrating its fifth birthday this summer, companies taking part in the festival in Canterbury on Saturday, August 25 and Sunday, August 26 will be coming from Australia, France, Denmark, Spain and across the UK to perform for what is expected to be some 15,000 people.

Highlights for 2018 include Teatret Gruppe 38 from Denmark, whose audience for Androcles and the Lion sit in hammocks to enjoy captivating projections and storytelling.

For the third year, bOing! will welcome one of the luminaria created by Alan Parkinson for Architects of Air. Katena will bring a maze of tunnels and soaring spaces inspired by Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia to the festival, which has festivalgoers queuing up each year.

Spanish company Aracaladanza return to Gulbenkian with Constellations, which takes inspiration from the colours and patterns of artist Joan Miro, while Dyptik from Saint Etienne in France will be performing a dynamic outdoor dance D-Construction, with dancers caged and protected by a high wire fence.

There will be performances for very little ones, such as La Petita’s Beatles for Babies, and for older children, with Efren Pamilican Jr from Melbourne and his powerful hip hop, projection performance 9DIMES and free outdoor City Sessions.

Lively outdoor performances include a Caravan of Love, Bill & Bobby dancing in a bath, DJs from The Netherlands making fries as they play tunes, bangra drumming and the Bollywood Brass band, plus crazy hairdressers from Barcelona.

Workshops are an important part of bOing! with visitors getting the chance to try animation, puppetry, bangra drumming, crime scene investigations and boat-hat making.

On Friday 24 August, bOing! will also be hitting the streets of Canterbury with Cohesion Plus performing bangra, plus the Bollywood Brass Band and a hip hop street battle all the way from Australia.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, April 20, for the festival on Saturday, August 25 and Sunday, August 26. To book go to boingfestival.com or call the information line on 01227 769075.