Kent is set for a pyrotechnic extravaganza this weekend.

Dover will play centre stage in a countywide celebration to mark the launch of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad.

A celebration at Dover Harbour will start at 8.15pm tonight, with a fire and light show accompanied by music.

The pyrotechnics display will light up the harbour and herald the start of a weekend of events in the town.

The Cultural Olympiad aims to promote the best of British culture to the rest of the world.

Also during the weekend will be free film screenings.

For the full details for Dover, see the East Kent Mercury website.

Meanwhile, in Medway tomorrow, fireworks will fill the skies.

The display will form the finale of a free special event at Rochester Castle as part of the national Light Up celebrations.

The fireworks will begin at 8.12pm (20:12 in the 24-hour clock), the culmination of an evening of entertainment which will include the first public showing of a specially-commissioned film featuring thousands of Medway residents.

For full details of Medway's events, see the Medway Messenger website.

In Gravesend, the celebrations take on a different flavour.

The festival will see a school parade of 450 children starting outside Woodville Halls in the town at 7pm this evening, then going down the High Street to finish at the bandstand area of Gravesend Promenade at 7.45pm.

There will also be an evening of free entertainment.

For full details of Gravesend's activities see the Gravesend Messenger website.

On Sheppey, the Mayor of Swale will launch the Cultural Olympiad.

Cllr Alan Willicombe will go to the first of a number of storytelling events called Folk Tales which will kick off at the Guildhall Museum in Queenborough today at 2pm.

Other events will take place across the Island to mark the launch.

For full details of Sheppey's events, see the Sheerness Times Guardian website.