Stockport Market will be transformed over the August Bank Holiday weekend with street theatre, creative art, live music and dance performances for the Stockport Old Town Fringe Festival.

Now in its third year, the town’s popular cultural event is sponsored by Stockport’s biggest commercial landlord Orbit Developments with support from Robinsons Brewery and Stockport Council.

On Friday and Saturday shoppers and visitors to Stockport Market will be entertained by High Jinx street shows throughout the day with a mix of close-up magic, illusion, juggling, escapology, stilt walking, unicycling and balloon modelling.

The Market Place will also feature graffiti artists painting on canvas, free face painting for children, live music performances and market stalls run by local artists and young creative traders from The Teenage Market.

Heatons-based artist Sophie Tyrrell is running her ‘Wild Stockport’ animal mask making workshop in Seven Miles Out from 12pm to 4pm on Friday and Saturday.

The workshop is free to attend and suitable for ages eight and above with families encouraged to make masks together.

Foodie Friday brings some of the north-west best street food traders to Stockport Market on Friday evening from 6pm for a special Fringe Festival event with a great line-up of live music.

After 9pm the evening continues in the other venues in the Market Place including Bakers Vaults, Blackshaw’s Cafe and Remedy Bar with more live music from the featured bands in Seven Miles Out.

On Saturday morning, cyclists can take part in a Ride Social around the Old Town organised by Cycle Moor. The rides start from Tandem Coffee House at 10.30am and 12.30am and anyone completing the hour-long ride will receive a complimentary coffee from Tandem.

Saturday afternoon sees the return of Angela Durcan’s talented young Irish musicians who will be playing in Seven Miles Out at 1pm and 3pm and in the evening, ‘Fringe Benefits’ features local live music from Mama Goose, The Basics and Jela.

Sunday afternoon is the main Festival Day with street entertainment in the Market Place from midday onwards including The Dick Danger Show, Bampot Street Theatre, Urban Gypsies dance display and The SkiBand.

There’s free circus skills workshops and a performance from The Circus House and The Stockport Ukulele Players are hosting a free ukulele workshop at 1.30pm in Angel Yard at the back of Seven Miles Out.

Dr Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band will be playing in the Market Square and hosting Dr Butler’s Afternoon Surgery in Seven Miles Out from 1pm with live music in the Bakers Vaults and Remedy Bar.

The festival finale at 4.30pm will provide plenty of thrills and spills as the death-defying Dick Danger, dressed in a bathing suit, scales a 30-foot pole, balances on the top before sliding down head-first into a bucket of water.

For more information and event listings visit the festival website.