GLASS exhibitions and activities will once again take centre stage when Stourbridge's Glass Quarter hosts the International Festival of Glass.

Wordsley’s Red House Glass Cone will be among the venues hosting a range of exhibitions, workshops, talks and events over the four-day festival from August 23 to 26.

This year’s theme is ‘Placemaking’ - a design approach that puts people at the centre and develops a sense of belonging - and the main event at the cone will be an exhibition of Swedish glass by The Glass Factory, a recently founded museums and glass centre which promotes creative, innovative developments with glass.

Running from August 23 to September 30, the exhibition takes glass back to its raw form and looks at the variety of ways it can be worked to produce striking and diverse artworks, from 3D printing to modelling the form to glass cactii.

For full details of festival events go to https://www.rmlt.org.uk/Pages/Site/international-festival-of-glass.

Councillor Ian Kettle, Dudley's cabinet member for regeneration and enterprise, said: "I hope people put this four-day event in their diaries and head to the Red House Glass Cone over the August bank holiday weekend.

"There’s the chance for all ages to try a glass craft over the long weekend."

The British Glass Biennale exhibition, featuring contemporary work by 74 artists, will be another highlight of the festival which will see masterclasses, live music and entertainment taking place at venues across the Glass Quarter including the Ruskin Glass Centre at Amblecote.