A reduced budget is not going to dampen the Fuse Festival this year as preparations are under way to welcome back Medway’s much-loved free family festival.

An exciting line-up of circus, dance, music and art performances will come to the streets of Medway on the weekend of June 13-14.

Performers include A Voyage Around My Bedroom by Eric MacLennan, during which the audience are taken on a tour around a perspex cube, containing the paraphernalia of an ordinary bedroom.

Southpaw Dance Company is back with Faust, told in a unique fusion of music and dance that taps into the spirit of gangsters, bootleggers and gamblers of the 1920s.

The theme for this year’s festival is Welcome Home and children and adults alike have helped create the artwork that will decorate Gillingham High Street for this year’s Fuse Festival.

Medway Council, Emergency Exit Arts and students from the University of Kent are working together on a new outdoor street decoration project for the festival, all helped by excited residents.

There are plenty of activities to enjoy in the lead up to the festival.

Embark on an epic outdoor adventure with curious stories, colourful characters, songs, fun games and plenty of audience participation with Rising Tide, a free open-air theatre show presented by students from London’s Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Rising Tide is at Hillyfields, Parr Avenue, Gillingham, from 3.30pm on Tuesday, June 9, and at the junction of Saxton Street and High Street in Gillingham from 4pm on Thursday, June 11.

Look out for magical clocks, miniature ships, nesting birds, dancing silhouettes and ornate chandeliers around Gillingham High Street as part of the Welcome Home art trail from Thursday to Sunday, June 11-14.

Contemporary artist Ktayoun Dowlatshahi has an exhibition at Rochester Art Gallery in the visitor information centre on Rochester High Street from Tuesday, June 11.

The free summer festival is jointly funded by Medway Council and the Arts Council, so when the Arts Council said it would have to cut its funding of £100,000 it became evident Medway could not fund the full cost of £215,000.

But after a campaign backed by the Medway Messenger, the Arts Council agreed to put in £40,000, matched by £45,000 from Medway.

For more information, visit fusefestival.org.uk