Chester's long-awaited new £37m cultural centre finally opens one week today, on May 11.
With the countdown until its launch now officially on, celebrations can begin in earnest.
And what better way to get the party started than to hold a street carnival in its honour.
Hundreds of local primary schoolchildren will form a human chain around Storyhouse – which incorporates a theatre, single screen cinema and the city’s main library – and pass up to 5,000 children’s books from the former library to inside the brand new Storyhouse children’s library.
Local buskers, dancers, drummers, musicians, dancers and storytellers will perform to the children and around the ‘book worm’ to celebrate the opening of Storyhouse as a community cultural centre between 10.15am and 2pm.
Storyhouse shunned the idea of a big celebrity opening to reflect the ambition for the venue to put the ‘community at its heart’.
Follow our updates below for all the carnival fun as it happens.
That's a wrap folks
That’s it from us, but the festivities are still very much in swing down at Storyhouse.
Thanks for following our live blog - A full report will be online later today.
No box office
Chief reporter Dave Holmes reports that Storyhouse doesn’t have a box office.
Instead, it has payment terminals.
'The only way we could start'
Storyhouse’s artistic director Alex Clifton explains the inspiration behind this community pre-launch:
“This is a building that will be brought to life by the community. The community of local performers and the brilliant local buskers will be the first to perform at Storyhouse, with music, dance and live art performed to and with primary school children from across the borough.
“Our innovative 21st century library is putting the community at the heart of its collection, and our book worm carnival is the perfect way to start, and the only way we could start.”
When's the actual opening?
The highly-anticipated opening is on Thursday, May 11.
A production of musical comedy The Beggar’s Opera will kick off the inaugural season, which also includes Alice in Wonderland plus Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Julius Caesar.
The building will be open from 8am when people can buy coffee, check out a book and book tickets for a show.
While the first movie screening is on Friday, May 12.
The buzz is building
Our chief reporter Dave Holmes is in position, ready to soak up the carnival atmosphere.
The action is due to kick off shortly.
