A PROCESSION of men with bread strapped to their heads and other bread-related entertainment will mark the Baltic Flour Mill's conversion to an arts centre today.

The £46m Gateshead Baltic Arts Centre opens to the public at 10am today until 7pm and will include a number of events to keep the public entertained and amused.

Between 11.30am and 12.30pm Japanese artist Tatsumi Orimoto will lead a Breadman processions.

Wearing a variety of loaves strapped to their heads, the 30 performers will begin their procession at the University of Northumbria, down Northumberland Street and Grey Street onto Dean Street. They will then move along Newcastle Quayside and across the Gateshead Millennium Bridge to the Baltic.

From 1.30pm to 5.30pm there will be two performances of Labanotation in the level one art space.

The project, instigated by Baltic artist in residence Alec Finlay, has involved local schoolchildren and reflects the idea of "football-as-poetry-as-dance-as-football".

From 1pm Anne Bjerge Hansen will reintroduce the smell of freshly baked bread to the arts venue with a two-day breadmaking performance on Baltic Square.

The freshly baked bread will be available from a market stall on Baltic Square and given out free to the public today and tomorrow.