LITERATURE fans will open an arts festival bursting at the seams with entertainment tomorrow to pay homage to master of horror Arthur Machen.

They will kick off the weeklong Caerleon Festival to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of the Welsh fantasy writer who influenced novelists including Stephen King, Jorge Luis Borges and HP Lovecraft.

“Machenalia” looks set to grip Caerleon, according to the organisers, with a series of events including live music, drama, comedy, and literature.

Participants will gather at St Cadoc’s church hall at 8pm on Friday for a literary evening called The Vain Pursuit of Literature, celebrating the life and works of the Caerleon-born writer.

This will be followed by a writers’ forum at the Priory Hotel on Saturday featuring Newport author Catherine Fisher, Mark Lawson Jones, Gwillam Gaines, Robert Kingham, Merlin Coverley and Godfrey Brangham.

On Saturday evening there will be Machen recitations at his birthplace in the High Street with Goff Morgan, and on Sunday morning a Machen Walk, starting at Llansor Mill, while Rossini Bartolotti-Hayward will give a guitar recital at Llanhennock village hall at 7.30pm.

The festivities will continue next week with children’s art and poetry awards at the Celtic Manor Resort on Monday.

The 11th Caerleon Festival will also feature poetry at the Chepstow Bookshop on Thursday and a performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the electric blues band Blues Central on Friday.

The celebrations will go out with a bang with a literary weekend featuring ITV Wales political editor Adrian Masters, poet and comedian John Hegley, forensic writer Bernard Wright and a comic verse contest on Sunday.

Festival chairman Tim Davidson said: “This year’s festival promises to be the best yet – a box of delights bursting at the seams with entertainment, music, drama, comedy, literature and events. Festival goers will have unbounded opportunities.”