A FLAME and ice spectacular will be the centre-piece of a two-day festival featuring Arthurian legend, dragons and water monsters.

The Fire and Ice festival is returning to Durham for a second time, featuring a trail of ice sculptures, demonstrations, have-a-go sessions and a grand finale.

The myths and legends themed festival opens tomorrow (Friday) and will showcase work by the UK's leading ice sculptors Glacial Arts.

The event will be a warm-up for the company, which is responsible for some of the installations on Game of Thrones, before it heads to Alaska to represent the UK in the world ice carving championships.

Adam Deathe, business manager for Durham's business improvement district (BID), which is organising the event, said: “Following on from the success of Fire & Ice in Durham last year, this event is going to be bigger and better than ever before. "With more ambitious ice sculptures, some of which offer the perfect opportunity for a selfie so don’t forget to pack your cameras, the festival is full of fun for all the family to enjoy.

"There’s been a great buzz across social media about the event returning to the city and we look forward to welcoming visitors from both near and far to Durham this weekend.”

This year’s event is themed on myths and legends and will also feature local tales like the Lambton Worm as well as trolls, mermaids, a phoenix and griffin wings.

One of the sculptures has been designed by Kieron Wales, from Peterlee, who was the winner of a competition organised by Durham BID.

Kieron, a year nine pupil at Dene Community School, designed an installation based on Hydra, the three-headed serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology.

In addition to the sculptures, there will be a number of interactive installations, including a block of ice with chocolate frozen into it, seeing visitors attempt to melt the ice to retrieve their sweet treat, and a ‘Sword and the Stone’ inspired ice competition sponsored by Moon Jewellery, in Silver Street. The first person to pull Excalibur from its icy prison each day will win £40 of vouchers.

The festival takes place across Durham from 10am on both days, with ice carving demonstrations and have-a-go sessions in the Market Place between 1pm and 5pm.

Each day will finish with a grand finale in Market Place combining shooting flames, dancing water jets and special effects.

At 5.15 there will be ten-minute family-friendly performance, which will be followed by another show at 6pm, with louder music and special effects suitable for older children and adults.

An ice-trail map can be found on www.durhambid.co.uk/fireandice