Canterbury will be awash with art exhibitions this weekend when the University of Kent hosts its inaugural International Festival of Projections.

“The festival is a really exciting brand new arts festival taking place at the University of Kent,” Jess Jordan-Wrench, the festival’s curator of projections, told KentOnline.

“We have over 80 events taking place over the next three days. We’ve got film screenings, we’ve got talks, we’ve got walks, we’ve got installations, we’ve got live soundtracks to drive-in movies; a really extensive amount of work going on up here.

VIDEO REPORT: Ali Iverson gets a sneak preview of the Festival of Projections at the University of Kent

“It’s all free, it’s all open to the public. So it’s world class work on your doorstep, just yours for the taking.”

Yoko Ono is among the artists whose work will be on show, in her case as part of a piece called ‘Future Signals’ which will take place tonight.

The city of Canterbury and the university will have a conversation in Morse code using a pair of signal lamps that can be seen eight kilometres away.

Ono is one of a number of public figures to have written messages that will be sent by the lamps.

Emrys Plant is an artist and writer from Margate who will have two pieces of his work displayed during the festival.

“Any inaugural event is a special event, especially for Canterbury and for the university,” he said.

“Canterbury has got a wealth of creative history and it’s got a wealth of creatve future, so this is part of that.

“I think that you are going to be surprised at what you find around pretty much every corner on the campus.

“There are film projections, there’s poetry projections – there’s so much diversity in creative content at the festival, there really is something for everyone and so much for families to get involved in as well.”

As well as installations and exhibitions on campus, there are also festival pieces around the city, like a new exhibition at the Beaney where curator Ben Judd has invited various artists to make artworks inspired by the Magic Lantern, a Victorian-era image projector.

The festival also coincides with CUFF, the Canterbury University Film Festival, which showcases films made by students from the University of Kent, Canterbury Christ Church University and the University for the Creative Arts.

Daniella Verektenidi, CUFF’s director, said its aim is to provide a platform for students’ work to be seen and appreciated.

“Student films are always thought of as not good enough. But I think there are some really good short films that I think it’s worth coming to see because that’s how you support a filmmaker,” she said.

“There’s a variety of films. Most of them are drama, we have some horror films, we have some documentaries – which we’re always surprised at how good they are – and we also have animations as well.

“This year we have three animation shorts and they’re all really good.”

As well as screenings, CUFF will also host talks from people in the film industry including graduates from Canterbury universities and the director of the London Fashion Film Festival.