Annual animation festival hoping for a big draw on ticket sales

TICKETS have gone on sale for a month long animation festival that will be running in Stoke-on-Trent.

The city's Stoke Your Fires festival will run from February 18 to March 4.

For the first time the festival will expand to include film and digital media as well as animation.

The Stoke-on-Trent City Council-backed festival showcases the best of local talent as well as feature films, shorts, documentaries and premieres from across the UK and around the world.

During February half-term there will be hands-on activities for children. As well as film screenings there will be a four-day convention with speakers from the film and animation industries. This year the convention runs from Tuesday, March 1 to Friday, March 4.

The four days will be split across film, digital media, animation and a multi-genre approach.

Speakers confirmed so far are James Richardson, fromVertigo Films, Barry Purves, an animator, writer and director and Matthew Rees and a senior animator for Aardman, the company behind Wallace and Gromit.

A four-day convention pass costs �35 with individual days costing �15.

To buy tickets log on to the Stoke Your Fires website by going to www.thisisstaffordshire.co.uk and clicking on this story.

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