http://www.colf.org

Welcome to the City of London Festival. Since our inauguration in 1962, we have provided a regular summer feast of music and the arts within not only the Square Mile's unique and remarkable collection of buildings - both ancient and modern - but also its squares, gardens and other open spaces. The 2008 Festival runs from 20 June to 10 July and offers a wide-ranging and eclectic indoor programme: music of various kinds, literature, exhibitions of visual arts, film screenings, architecture walks and talks. There will be even greater variety outdoors through June and July and extending into August, enhancing the City's festive season.

Our Festival is both international and local, reflecting the diversity of the City's communities and the artists and audiences, who come to participate in a cultural feast and animate this special locality. In recent years we have given a focus to the music and arts of other major centres and have made genuine cultural exchanges, which give our programmes their special qualities and flavours. Just as London is one of the world's greatest trading places, the Festival continues "trading places" with international artistic partners. In 2008 we are engaged creatively with both India and Switzerland in ways which are sometimes surprising and, we hope, always enriching. Romanticism, inspired by beautiful landscapes and great journeys, is a theme running through this year's Festival.