This year promises to be a busy year for Arad Goch with Opening Doors Festival returning to entertain the community - and the festival is bigger than ever.

Opening Doors Festival is the only international performing arts festival for young audiences in Wales and will be the 9th Opening Doors to be held in Aberystwyth and in theatres across Wales between 16 and 23 March.

The festival will return as part of Arad Goch’s 30th birthday celebrations and as the theatre company marks the reopening of the centre after refurbishment.

Productions will be performed by companies from France, Belgium, Catalonia, Spain, Scotland, South Korea and Wales.

This is an opportunity for children, young people and families in Wales to experience some of the best productions in the international performing arts scene, as well as giving overseas visitors the opportunity to experience the riches of the performing arts in Wales.

One of the productions, Tripulaby Farrés Bros & Co, will be coming from Catalonia. They have transformed a hot air balloon into an amazing theatrical experience.

This is a story about two scientists having discovered a new way to travel and will share their amazing discovery with you.

The Static Air Balloon travels through space, close to the limits of reality, allowing you to go to places that until now nobody suspected existed.

The company is well-known across Catalonia, Spain and Europe and this will be their first visit to Wales.

Un Petit Peu Plus Loin by Collectif H2Oz, from Belgium, is about a strange cube that emerges from a vast moving sea – like a big square egg!

Then two, four, six feet appear ready to take their first exciting steps in this vast world, helping and supporting each other as they play and explore their new world – like an exciting game, full of fun and surprises.

They will also have a production from South Korea joining them for the week. A Seed Story by creative42 is a heart-warming performance accompanied by gayageum string, songs, hand puppets and storytelling.

There was a girl who walks tightrope and there was a boy who sells holes. One day, the wind made the girl do a wondrous triple tumbling and arrive in front of the boy - and they fell in love each other.

After getting married, they dreamed the same dream in which they got the rainbow seed from an old lady.

Not all productions however will be from overseas, there will also be productions from the UK such as Is this a Dagger?, an adaptation of Macbeth by Red Bridge Arts.

Andy Cannon, one of Scotland’s finest storytellers, takes audiences on a thousand-year journey from fact to fiction and back again. He distils the essence of this epic play into a one-man, one-hour version, making it appealing for audiences young and old.

There will also be peripheral events during the festival, including workshops by actors, events such as live music gigs, seminars and more.

For more of what’s on in your area, see this week’s Cambrian News, on sale tomorrow