IF at first you succeed, repeat the grand idea again while it is fresh in the memory.

After the vibrant launch of The Little Festival of Everything in a small North Yorkshire village last November, the innovative festival will bring the Coxwold community, its 17th century pub and York theatre company The Flanagan Collective together for a second time this weekend.

The Fauconberg Arms will play host to more than 50 acts, made up of actors, children’s entertainers, storytellers, singers and performers in a free festival that aims to bring “the best entertainment from around the UK” to the pub from tomorrow until Sunday.

‘The Little Festival of Everything was conceived last year by The Flanagan Collective, spearheaded by Alexander Wright, already the artistic director of Belt Up Theatre in York and now associate director for the 2012 York Mystery Plays with York Theatre Royal.

Alexander, 24, was brought up in Coxwold, in turn motivating him to create a new business model for a rural arts festival. “It involves performers using the experience to try out new work in a country retreat and the audience being able to participate, watch and enjoy the experience for free,” he says.

Such was the success of the inaugural November weekend in Coxwold that Little Fest is now being rolled out to Southill Park in Bracknell – where The Flanagan Collective are associate artists – on July 2 and at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival at the new C Nova venue in the India Buildings from August 2 to 27.

“Ideally, it will be a place where artists and people can meet up and talk without the element of competition,” says Alexander, welcoming the new Edinburgh project. “Rather than trying to beat each other, if you’re good at what you do and so are we, let’s talk about it!”

In Coxwold, the model works because all performers receive expenses that will be covered by sponsorship. “They all agree to come without an additional fee as they’ll use the experience as a testing ground for new work, have a lovely weekend in a beautiful setting with like-minded peers, and they all genuinely want to be part of this new venture,” says Alexander.

The residents of Coxwold again have offered up their spare rooms and will host the performers for the weekend. This allows the whole festival to be free for audiences and it is hoped that families, visitors and locals will experience many events across the weekend.

Pub boss Simon Rheinberg says: “Having an arts festival of this calibre in a village pub is unique. The free entry was a very important objective as it fits in with the general atmosphere of being in a pub. People can spend as long as they want there, eat and drink at anytime throughout the day.’ Performances will take place in and around the premises of The Fauconberg Arms, although not in the loos this time, and Alexander believes the festival line-up is even stronger this time.

“We’ve again gathered the best people from near and far to come and set up shop in the pub,” he says. “We have returning storytellers, theatre makers, poets, musicians, writers and cabaret artists as well as new performers who heard about last years festival and wanted to get involved.”

The festival aims to appeal to all ages and interests. “There are things for the adventurous, for the daring, for the quiet and for the inquisitive,” says Alexanxder. There are things that will surprise you, move you, challenge you and excite you, but everything will welcome you with open arms.”

Among the returnees will be Harrogate cabaret artiste Damsel Sophie, performing The Damsel In Shining Armour; Katie Posner directing Michael Lambourne in an astronaut’s work suit in York company Pilot Theatre’s performance of a Tom Wells monologue; York performance poet Henry Raby; and children’s theatre company Tucked In.

Further highlights will be folk band Holy Moly And The Crackers, launching their debut album; folk musician Alun Nixon; Essex company Shady Jane, presenting A Few Minutes With A Mitford, a tea party with two of the Mitford sisters; and York playwright and actress Hannah Davies, performing her new one-women show, Githa, about Katherine Githa Sowerby, who wrote Rutherford And Son in 1912.

“She wrote as KG Sowerby and everyone was amazed when she turned out to be a woman,” says Alexander. “She was on the Ibsen level of social commentary but has fallen away into not being performed, though Northern Broadsides are doing Rutherford And Son next year.”

The festival also has attracted new participants such as Louise Mari of London theatre collective Shunt, performing a five-minute piece with two light bulbs and two microphones; York comedy duo Bush and McClusky previewing their Edinburgh show; and comedian Chris Stokes.

“Children’s storytelling company Mud Pie Arts will be presenting The Three Sillies, A Yorkshire Story and trying out some games for a new show called The Bog People, while Easingwold’s Gobbledigook Theatre are doing two sister pieces, Suited and Steak Frites,” says Alexander.

“Dominic Allen, from Belt Up, will be testing out his one-man show called The History Of The British Empire and I can’t imagine anyone better than Dom to do that.”

This Summer festival will make more of the pub’s outdoor space with a family storytelling area and events in the summer house, plus a vintage and craft fair on Sunday morning.

For more information and a full programme listing, visit littlefest.co.uk.

NO sooner does The Little Festival Of Everything end than The Flanagan Collective moves on to unveil Alexander Wright’s Edinburgh-bound Beulah in The Studio at York Theatre Royal from Wednesday to Saturday at 7.45pm nightly.

Based on the world that William Blake created, somewhere in between heaven and Earth, Beulah looks at our concept of time, our life expectancies and our measurement of time during our stay in this world. “The play delves into those inexplicable moments and spaces in our lives: where night mixes with day, where shadows look like people, where our dreams mix with reality and where our body tells us to believe something when our mind knows that it’s impossible,” says Alexander.

Part story, part conversation and part musical; Beulah features live and original music, drawing inspiration from everything from traditional folk ballads to Iceland’s Sigur Ros.

Directed by Tom Bellerby, performers Jim Harbourne and The River People’s Ed Wren will switch between ten instruments as well as using puppets and storytelling.

Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk