Some companies don't need any more than the one actor to present a whole world of characters: Hollywood Screens stops at nothing nor no-one to pay tribute to the whole world of tinseltown dreams; some single characters are a whole world in themselves, like the real-life-legendary physicist & bongo-player Richard Feynman (courtesy of Mike Moran) and Ben Moor's tale of more physics, tightrope walking and true love, 'A Supercollider for the Family'. Can we mention Ken Campbell or Geraldine McNulty & Lynn Ferguson? No, they're in the next-but-one section.

Worldbeat fusioneers Baka Beyond bring their pioneering approach to afroceltic beats and dances for their first proper concert in their adopted hometown; the Fringe's Latin American connection brings in Colombian supergroup Bombele for a big show at the Pav., and the real-deal Acoustic Cuban/Carribean at the Ustinov. British music gets an equally big slice of the action: Kate Rusby, among the foremost of the New Generation of Brit-Folk, comes to Bath for the first time; Rory McLeod makes yet another return by public demand; two generations of the best British political songwriting meet through Leon Rosselson & Robb Johnson; Transported Women is a new and locally-developed show using song & story to tell the tale that befell many women of Somerset in the 19th Century; Company of Strangers explore Celtic mists and myths with the full range of bardic skills; the Folk Roots Knight pulls together many disparate threads of tradition; and the Acoustic Network brings things bang up to date again. Well-known for their too-infrequent local gigs, Crazy Rhythm tell the story of Gypsy Jazz in words & music; we've got classics, 16th Century period music, all the way through to a full programme of the utterly up-to-date, mostly in that true home of great guitar bands, Moles Club, and of course we don't forget the locals. Window Art Centre have a programme that explores the new acoustic/dance crossover in the company of deranged but compulsive favourites like Tragik, The Baghdaddies, and the Head Mix Collective. As always our indefatigable pub music venues have surpassed themselves with special Fringe programmes: The Walcot Palais has a hefty blues feel with blues boom pioneers Chicken Shack nestling up against Bristol's international Eddie Martin, plus Brazilian songs you can dance to from Bem Bom and of course more; The Bell rolls from the electric ethno-jazz fusion of Mo Nazam or Bath's own Bluegrass movers & shakers The Daily Planet, through to modest guitar hero Pete Oxley and Gas Giants' soundtracks for invisible films, climaxing in positively the most popular band in the city The Three Caballeros on Walcot Nation Day, which itself also features more bands than we could list on this page.

And if you've got room for any more I'm sure the Fringe Club will have them...

John Shuttleworth is a one-man entertainment industry for all the family; Geraldine McNulty & Lynn Ferguson cram more characters than you could get in even the most generous suite of clothes-shop fitting-rooms into an evening that we can comfortably predict will be a big hit at Edinburgh as well as Bath; and then there's Ken Campbell, possibly the least classifiable artist of the whole fringe, who is wont to introduce issues as diverse as Shakespeare, Nuclear Physics (again?), the structure of language, Mediaeval heresies, and his own love-life, into shows that can unfold nearly as far as his legendary mammoth theatre productions. Sean Lock might be an established comedy name but that doesn't mean than an evening with him will be in the slightest bit predictable.

Cabaret has just recently exploded all over again up in the London comedy clubs - of course we've been doing it for years down here, and there's a bewildering selection of evenings in the style (sheer style) to be seen during this year's festival. As well as the Bedlam & Kaboodle events mentioned above, there's spoken word/music cabaret at The Hat & Feather, Bath's original Alternative Theatre pub, and the Kaboodle tent hosts shows by Bristol's Albany Artists - a performing scene of its own with some distinctly curious talents on board - and Club Rombus, who take the formula into film and improvisation, simultaneously! Not to be outdone, Bath's own stand-up superstar Noel Britten presents a full bill of the less serious side of '90s variety, with the accent on magic, at the Ustinov.And if that's not enough for you, the Fringe Club promises even more and every night - see separate entry.

The Fringe Club at The Huntsman on Bog Island - upstairs - use the side entrance From 11 every night, £2-£5 The Huntsman pub.

Other good places to hang out after the show include Window Art Centre café-bar and The Walcot Palais at the Porter Butt, who have a late licence every night during the festival to help you celebrate all the great bands they've got on.