Britain will stage more than 100 cultural festivals this year. Some have wide-ranging programs covering most of the arts, while others concentrate primarily on one aspect - opera, literature, jazz, theater and performance, dance or early music. The first category includes the Chichester Festivities (June 27 - July 10), founded in 1975 to mark the 900th anniversary of the town\'s Norman cathedral; and the most famous of them all, the Edinburgh International Festival (August 15 - September 4), with its Fringe (August 8 - 30).

The more specialist festivals include Buxton (July 9 - 25), with the refurbished Buxton Opera House staging six operas from Handel to Piazolla\'s \'Marie de Buenos Aires\'; the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (October 8 - 17) which at 54 lays claim to being the oldest event of its kind in the world; and the Beverley and East Riding Early Music Festival (June 1 - 6), a Yorkshire event in its 16th year. For information on these and many other festivals, visit the British Arts Festivals Association website: www.artsfestivals.co.uk.

The Welsh town of Brecon is renowned for its annual jazz festival, celebrating its 21st anniversary this summer (August 13 - 15). Some 400 musicians are expected to take part in about 90 concerts over the festival\'s three days. The town is compact, making it easy to stroll from one venue to another, listening to marching bands and buskers in-between. Brecon lies at the edge of the Brecon Beacons National Park with its wild mountain and moorland, popular with walkers and other outdoor enthusiasts. Website: www.breconjazz.net.