Great Yorkshire Fringe: The Arts Barge's Riverside 2016 Festival, the festival within the festival

The Gardens will be taken over by the Arts Barge's Riverside 2016 festival - a free five-day festival of live music, dance and family fun that will celebrate the arrival in York of an old industrial barge that will one day become a floating arts and cultural centre.

The barge – the Selby Tony – is already in Foss Basin awaiting planning permission for a permanent city centre mooring and conversion to a community arts and culture space. "The local community has recently contributed £23,000 via civic crowd-funding platform Spacehive to fund the work needed to submit the planning application - all this is now in full swing," says Arts Barge co-director Hannah West.

In the meantime, there's Riverside 2016.

Yes, it is part of the Great Yorkshire Fringe. But it's also a fully-flung festival in its own right, with a host of events for all the family spread across five days in a tent beside the River Ouse.

Highlights include:

Wednesday July 27 - Arty Farty Kids and facepainting during the day, followed by Open Mic hour at 9.30pm and York's Skiffle and Rockabilly duo The Blackjacks at 10.30pm.

Thursday July 28 - Kindermusik (music and movement session for the under 6s) in the morning, plus family storytime at 12noon, a puppet show for children at 4.30pm and, from 6-11pm, a 'York Originals' showcase - showing off the great song-writing and musical talent York has to offer.

Friday July 29 - more Kindermusik; American tribal-style belly dance workshops at 2.30pm; sock monster-making from 2-4pm; and from 7pm Selby Tony's Friday Night Cabaret, featuring The Dead Drummer, comedian Alexander Barry, Chaucerian Tales of The Unexpected and the ridiculous Peter Marshall and The Lomos. Plus much more...

Saturday July 30 - Arty Farty Kids and puppet theatre in the morning then, all afternoon, Irish Day. This is billed as "a whale of a time, full of Irish jogs and reels, open music sessions, dance workshops and performances, and a ceilidh.

The ceilidh will be followed in the evening by a 'back to the future, enchantment under the sea' dance. Not sure what that means? Let Hannah West explain. "What was a good night out between 1957 and 1987?" she says.

"Riverside is going back in time to find out. Bring your retro moves and dress accordingly for The Back To The Future Dance, with music from the decade-spanning ever-changing Arts Barge Collective, celebrating music and dance from the thirty-year heyday of The Selby Tony! "

Sunday July 31 - a lunchtime open gypsy jazz session; a ukelele workshop from 1.30pm; the hands and Voices signing choir from 3.30pm; the Arts barge's community band Bargestra at 4pm; Skipton's community jazz band Dales Jam at 5pm; and the Arts Barge sofa singalong to close the festival from 8pm.

These are all just the highlights, Hannah stresses. If you just want to come along at any time and chill out, that's fine too. "You can grab a sofa and a pint and relax for some top quality live arts entertainment," she says.

Full details of Riverside 2016 are available from theartsbargeproject.com/riverside-2016/

The Arts Barge will also be putting on a special event, the Great Yorkshire Swing, as part of the Great Yorkshire Fringe.

Taking place in the famous Spiegel tent on Monday July 18, the Great Yorkshire Swing is an evening of stylish 1940s Lindy Hopping to the music of the Arts Barge Bling Tiger Dance Band."You can learn to Lindy Hop even if you've got two left feet, then dance the night away in the famous and fabulous Spiegel tent where Marlene Dietrich once sang," says the Arts barge's Hannah West.

"If you’re not a dancer, you can just soak up the scene - splendid music, spectacular dance performances and a unique historic venue. Don your retro togs, hair-do’s and hats, and don’t miss it, it’s really special!"

Tickets for the Great Yorkshire Swing are £18 (£16 concessions) from greatyorkshirefringe.com or from the Great Yorkshire Fringe Box Office in Parliament Street.