As the annual arts and cultural festival celebrates its ‘wooden’ anniversary, we bring you the top 5 highlights of the event.

Described by The Edge, Malaysia 2012 as ‘one festival in the country worth making a roadtrip for’, the George Town Festival (GTF) has been drawing in audiences and participants not only from the region but the world over.

The month-long festival, which was founded as a celebration of George Town’s UNESCO Heritage Site Listing on 7 July 2008, sees a shift to August this year to accommodate the Muslim fasting month.

With programmes scheduled daily throughout the festival, this year’s events draw attention to the living culture of the city – people, places and communities. Modest locations such as coffee shop corners and sidewalks will be transformed into galleries and theatres, giving the impression of a borderless stage.

‘We live within such a unique network of vibrant spaces, and the real centrepiece of the festival is the city itself. We want to turn the city into a canvas for world-class artistes,’ says Festival Director, Joe Sidek who has been helming the project since 2010.