A pyrotechnic extravaganza - that's how tonight's event at Dover Harbour is being described.

Marking the launch of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the celebration will start at 8.15pm 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.

The fire and light show at Dover Harbour promises to be "dramatic and ground-breaking", celebrating the town's rich history as well as recognising the campaign to welcome the Olympic torch relay into the UK through Dover, as it did at the last UK Games in 1948.

Free film screenings are also being held in Dover over the weekend.

Some of the screenings will be taking place at Buckland House at the former Buckland Paper Mill site off Crabble Hill, on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

The 12-minute film The Walk to Dover by Spartacus Chetwynd will be shown in a continuous loop.

The film, which was made in 2005 and was commissioned by Studio Voltaire, centres on a journey made by foot from London to Dover.

Heritage

From 11am to 12.30pm on both days, visitors will be able to look back at our industrial heritage with footage from various archives, as well as a showing of Ray Warner's 28-minute film Down the River Dour by Canoe.

Made in 1969, it follows two Dover boys as they travel down the Dour.

From 2pm to 4pm there is a preview of the new film The Photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher, which was directed, written and produced by Marianne Kapfer.

Marianne will be present at the film screenings.

Also showing on a continuous loop at the White Nave Project space at the Charlton Art Centre on Saturday is The Cox Family in the Fifties, which features private archive footage shot by Bernard Cox in 1952.

And The Show Goes On, an art exhibition, is also being staged at the Charlton Art Centre on the first floor of the Charlton shopping centre in the High Street.