ORGANISERS of February’s Coastival arts festival are inviting people along to a mystery launch event this week.

Farrer’s Bar at the Spa will be the venue and it will feature a “gospel breakfast” music session from Mister Tooley.

But there will also be a surprise feature at the event, being held to launch the 2017 festival brochure, at 11am on December 3.

Organisers are remaining tight-lipped but do hint that it will involve one of Coastival 2017’s biggest attractions – an attempt to replicate Scarborough in the computer game Minecraft.

The mystery launch is in keeping with the theme of February’s festival which is “Coastival – The Unexpected”.

Coastival director Wendy Holroyd said: “The launch event will be a fabulous, chilled out music event but with a surprise twist as well.

“You’ll have to come along to find out more but all I will say is that if you’re excited by the Minecraft aspect of Coastival 2017, then you won’t want to miss it."

Under the “unexpected” theme, in February visitors can expect to see artwork, music and performances in unusual locations as Coastival looks to break with people’s expectations of an arts festival.

So alongside traditional venues like the Spa and the Stephen Joseph Theatre, people can expect to visit the old prison on Dean Road, Scarborough Railway Station and many, many more unusual venues.

Coastival will run from February 18 to 19 and one of the major highlights will be the Minecraft attempt. This is an exciting and ambitious bid to recreate Scarborough in 3D in the game Minecraft.

It is a community effort including schools, colleges, community groups and individuals, painstakingly creating Scarborough in Minecraft and culminating in a huge Minecraft event over the Coastival weekend at the Spa.