FORGET The Tate and Manchester Art Gallery.

Culture Warrington is out to prove that the art scene in the town is just as vibrant as any city centre with the annual Contemporary Arts Festival.

Starting tonight, Friday, and running until November 1, the event will feature visual arts, photography, installations and contemporary dance.

Warrington artists as well as leading national and international artists will all be displaying their work. Now in its fourth year, the festival’s theme this year is ‘about time’ – and artists have been challenged with interpreting that in any way they choose.

So there will be pieces focusing on sequence, memory, heritage and reflections on the past, present and future.

Warrington Contemporary Arts Festival launches with a free ‘cultural crawl’ tomorrow, Friday, calling in at the event’s three key venues.

It starts at 6pm at The Gallery At Bank Quay House in Sankey Street for a first look at the open art exhibition.

The cultural crawl will then move around the corner to the Pyramid for the photography open with a final stop at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery.

Winners of the open exhibitions will be announced at 8pm with guest judges Kwong Lee from Manchester’s Castlefield Gallery and John Volynchook, winner of the photography open last year.

This year, Warrington’s Longshot Film Festival is joining forces with the Contemporary Arts Festival.

Organiser Tony Fennell will be showcasing a selection of short films on Saturday, October 11, made by people with a connection to the town.

Other highlights include Will Nash’s Noisy Table.

The artist hopes to break down the barriers to art by turning table tennis into a musical instrument.

You can have a go yourself for free at the Pyramid until November 1.

Then on Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25, a Volkswagen Voyager van will pull up where you can record your take on the world.

Performance company Quarantine will then put together all the useful – and useless information – for a project called Between Us We Know Everything.

Quarantine will be parked in Queen’s Gardens on Friday, October 24, and in Hilden Square on Saturday, October 25. The festival also closes in style and in keeping with Halloween with a musical reworking of the classic 1922 film, Nosferatu, by The Broken Door at the Pyramid on October 31.

For the full programme of events visit warringtonartsfestival.co.uk