Amongst the varied events that make up Wordfringe 2009, a number of strands of related events make up what could be described as festivals-within-a-festival.

The North Coast Weekend presents a whole weekend of events in Portsoy, Banff, Pennan and Fraserburgh on 2-3 May.

The following weekend is Woodend Barn Weekend, when on 9-10 May all Wordfringe events take place in Banchory.

New Words / New Sounds is an exciting and innovative strand of events exploring different relationships between words and music. This strand is presented in collaboration with Sound, North-East Scotland's Festival of New Music.

Performance Poetry is represented by established figures such as John Hegley and Attila the Stockbroker, as well as established Wordfringe favourites Ash Dickinson and Rapunzel Wizard.

Theatre at Wordfringe has always been an important strand, and this year we present two very different productions.