TEN days of top live entertainment kicks off tonight as the Swindon Fringe Festival returns once again.

This year’s festival boasts a packed line-up of more than 60 shows, with side-splitting comedy, compelling drama, family fun, free workshops, and a music festival.

Following the end of the Swindon Independent Film Festival, the free Swinge opening night begins at the Crossing in the Brunel Shopping Centre at 7pm, with live music from Gilmore ’n’ Jaz and Canutes Plastic Army plus stand-up comedy from award-winning funnyman Tony Cowards.

Gilmore ‘n’ Jaz will also perform at the Groovy Pig Music Festival at the Victoria on Sunday April 8 from 5pm with eight other acts, including Sweet Nightingale, the Bellflowers, Sex Jazz and Spunking Octochoke.

The Fringe Festival is sure to be a barrel of laughs with so many comics coming to Swindon to entertain audiences.

Paul Richards will perform three Short Plays for Marvellous People in an event suitable for all ages at the Victoria on Monday April 9 at 7.30pm after a light-hearted look at the Ordnance Survey with Helen Wood’s The O.S. Map Fan Club.

The Ocelot Comedy Night will be the stand-up centrepiece of the festival at the Victoria on Thursday April 12 at 8pm.

Comic and psychiatric nurse Rob Gee brings his solo show Fruitcake - Ten Commandments from the Psych Ward to the Town Hall on Friday, April 13 at 7.30pm, after musical maths comedian Kyle D Evans’ Born to Sum show.

Rob’s comedy charts a night shift on an acute psychiatric unit, seen through the eyes of a jaded nurse who hears the voice of God.

He said: “When I first wrote Fruitcake, I performed it to an audience of people I’d nursed in the past.

“I was really nervous, but thankfully the feedback was very positive, it was a huge relief.”

The laughter continues into the festival’s final weekend. Instant Wit will perform at New College’s Phoenix Theatre at 7.30pm on Saturday, April 14 in an improvised comedy double-bill with An Imp-Revised History of the World.

Instant Wit’s artistic director Stephanie Weston, said: “It’s great fun to do – it’s lovely to see an instant audience reaction.

“ It really gets the creative juices flowing because you have to think on the spot, so it’s quite challenging as well.”

Self-taught clown/magician Ewerton Matins from Brazil will bring his El Diablo of The Cards show to the Brunel on Sunday April 8 at 1pm and Saturday, April 14 at 10.30am.

Other family-friendly entertainment on offer includes imaginative children’s theatre George and the Flight of the Imaginees at the Olive Tree Café on Sunday April 8 at 12.30pm, adventure The Fairy Prince at the Crossing on Wednesday at 11am, the story of two clowns who become friends in Friendly Ever After at the Town Hall on Friday, April 13 at 10.30am, and Be Happy, Harry Hippo! at the same venue on Sunday, April 15 at 10.30am.

There will also be plenty of plays for theatre-lovers, starting with Individual Medley and Do You Mind? at the Phoenix Theatre tomorrow from 2.30pm.

The remarkable variety of the drama on offer is summed up by The Casting, a modern drama examining desperation and greed where two candidates are interviewed for a chance to win £100,000, being followed by a period drama about the lives of the Brontë sisters at the Victoria on Tuesday April 10 from 7.30pm.

Script-free story cabaret Tales of Lust and Chocolate will be performed at the same venue at the same time the day after as part of a double bill with Haniel Long’s Interlinear of Cabeza de Vaca, the true tale of a conquistador shipwrecked in Florida who survived eight years among the native tribes.

The Olive Tree Café will host two plays focusing on mental health issues on Thursday April 12 at 7.30pm: I am Not a Soldier and Connie’s Colander.

San Francisco production troupe Shelton Theatres bring Nowhere Man to the Phoenix Theatre on Saturday, April 14 at 2.30pm. The drama reveals a day in the life of three young American waitresses working at a rundown roadside diner.

Their show will be followed by Dig For The Diggers, a play from the winners of the 2018 Harold Jolliffe One Act Play Festival which is based on the Battle of Fromelles in World War One.

The festival will come to a dramatic end with four plays being staged at the Town Hall on Sunday, April 15: one-woman show Til Debt Us Do Part and experimental production SOLO2 from 2.30pm, plus the immersive play Autobahn and dark drama Lady Killers from 7.30pm.

Festival co-ordinator Molly Campbell said: “This is the most exciting year for the Swindon Fringe Festival.

“We had such a huge number of high quality acts apply for 2018 and it was a difficult job trying to fit most them into the programme.

“There is something there for everyone: puppetry, poetry, rock bands, stand-up comedians, improv, drama, workshops and magic.

“We can’t wait to see each act this year and we know Swindon will enjoy themselves too, I’m incredibly proud of what our little team has put together.”

“There has been a lot of work put in the last seven months and it’s going to be over in just 10 days - don’t miss it!”

To book tickets, visit swindonfringefestival.com