The John Muir Way is a 134 mile coast-to-coast trail which runs from Helensburgh - where the Father of National Parks set sail for the west - to Dunbar, his hometown.

A 10-day festival will celebrate the opening of the new walking and cycling trail. Events will take place across several key points on the route before it concludes in Helensburgh on Saturday, April 26.

On this day there will be a a number of artists coming to the Burgh to take part in the local celebrations.

Flag Bearers will lead a procession through the town starting from Hill House at 1.15pm and concluding at Hermitage Park at 2pm, where a number of activities will be on offer as well as a farmers' market.

Artist Kenny Bean will display his work Caravan Obscura. John Muir once said the best way to appreciate a landscape anew was to look at it upside down.

Playing with this theme, Kenny will invite the public to sit in an adapted caravan and viewing the landscape outside projected using lenses and mirrors live onto the ceiling.

The Gang of John Muirs will be easily recognisable when they come to Helensburgh. Experts in ‘walkabout theatre’ Mischief la Bas will conduct outdoor performances in the guise of a gang of bearded John Muir lookalikes. They will also take part in photo opportunities and recite thought-provoking quotes from Muir’s writings.

Actors from Mischief la Bas are Colin Irons, Jim Callaghan and Martin Campbell.

Guerrilla Gardener Darren Wilson will be ‘seedbombing’ at the event – which involves throwing down balls of soil containing seeds – to promote an awareness of green ethics, sustainability, and a reconnection with nature in the spirit of Muir.

To achieve this he will encourage the public to participate in seedbombing native flowers along the John Muir Way.

The final artist to feature in the Burgh will be Alice Francis, who uses performance, film and installation, to produce site-specific temporary public artworks.

In her John Muir Festival piece View Alice invites the audience to take a seat before drawing back the curtains on a giant, glassless window frame in an attempt to dissolve the boundaries between art and life.

Participants will be invited to admire the view and examine the relationship between wildness and wilderness, inside and out, in our environment and within ourselves.

To help make the festival a success volunteers are still being called upon to take part in the local leg of the event.

If you would like to be a flag bearer – taking part in the procession from Hill House, through the Burgh, to Hermitage Park – or a procession steward, park ranger, researcher, and information point attendant please get in touch with the organisers.

To volunteer at the festival, email Eileen Wilson, at eileen@uzarts.com, or visit www.johnmuirfestival.com/#whats-on for more information.