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Why have you set up a Fringe Festival for Southend?

I wanted to improve the general morale and show people that the best days of Southend don't have to all be in the past.Ìý

Southend is not a town without problems, people do not often display local pride, even though it is actually an amazing place if you scratch the surface.Ìý I wanted to help showcase the talent and creativity we have here.Ìý I wanted to encourage people to be individuals and to celebrate the way they are, instead of trying to fit in.Ìý

Also I wanted to encourage the tourists back.Ìý Southend used to be a popular tourist destination, and if we could get that going again there would be more jobs and more money invested in the area.Ìý

I want Southend to be somewhere where we can all feel safe to be ourselves, and where we can all find gainful employment and a real sense of belonging.Ìý I believe this is the only long term way to sort out the social fissures and aggression that often bubble under and make people lose faith in this community.Ìý

It's a tall order, because we have the largest population of any town in Essex, but that also means we have the largest potential to make a change.

What acts have you got lined up?

The festival kicks off with a craft fair in Chalkwell Park, which is free entry and features the Silver Band from Chelmsford.Ìý The RSPB will be there showing children how to make bird feeders and we have a wide range of local artists and crafters displaying and selling their work.

We are playing host to an amateur performance of the play 'Accidental Death of an Anarchist' at Utopia.

The fringe festival takes place in June

There's Rockabilly blues and soul from local legend Steve Hooker, a night of anti-folk headlined by MJ Hibbert,Ìý and 'old bands vs new blood' gig at the Ship in Leigh, alternative and unusual sounds from the Culture as a Dare team and a grand finale at Bar Lambs, which is a sea-themed party headlined by the Beatroots with support from Fashoda Crisis and Ste McCabe, who is coming all the way from Manchester to perform.

We have a few other events which haven't been registered yet, and we would welcome some more additions.

What acts are you looking for?

The festival is non-curated so anyone who has a creative streak can give it a go, we have mainly had applications from musicians so far though so some variety would be great, comedians, puppet shows, dancers, performance artists, exhibitions, presentations... we encourage lateral thinking!Ìý

Applications for this year's festival need to be in by the end of March but we will start accepting applications for 2010 in October so it's never too early to get planning.Ìý

If you are reading this in early April we might just let you sneak in if your idea is good enough.Ìý All the details can be found on our website

We are also looking for anyone who would like to advertise in our brochures, sponsor an event, provide media coverage or raffle prizes.Ìý All serious offers of help are greatly appreciated!

Who is the Festival aimed at?

Everyone.Ìý We really do want to be as inclusive as possible.Ìý We are slightly at the mercy of the public and which events they want to put on, but in the events we organise ourselves we are trying to interest and involve different age groups and cultural backgrounds.

We have also been contacting people directly to try and encourage them to get involved to support this aim.Ìý If anyone feels excluded or under-represented in our programming then they should come to us with suggestions.Ìý We love hearing ideas, even if you're not able to organise an event you can always send ideas in and we will see if we can make the good ones happen.

Other fringes have more events to offer but that makes it harder for organisers to draw a crowd.Ìý Although we are inspired by other Fringes, particularly the Brighton Fringe, we have been very careful throughout to make sure that this is a festival custom made for Southend and not a lazy copy.Ìý

Where in Southend does it take place?

We want to spread out to cover the whole of the greater Southend area, but so far we have events booked at Bar Lambs, the Kursaal, Cobham Lodge,Ìý Chalkwell Park, Club Riga, Chinnery's, Utopia coffee shop and the King's Head in Rochford.Ìý

Next year we'd like to get events going in some of the community centres and schools, as well as some more unusual spaces.Ìý

The Southend Fringe Festival takes place from Friday, 5, June to Friday, 26, June 2009.