TORBAY'S Telling Tales festival is off to a flying start for 2012.

Steve Knightly (pictured), part of the award-winning folk outfit Show of Hands, will perform a special solo gig for the festival at the Palace Theatre in Paignton on Sunday, February 26.

Steve, the songwriting force behind Show of Hands, is lead patron for the huge primary schools festival that celebrates identity, heritage and creativity for young people in Torbay.

The festival organiser, Paignton Community College's advanced skills teacher Jess Hunter said: "We are so thrilled that our patron will be supporting this important event for the second year running.

"Thanks to support from Show of Hands last year, we were able to promote a love of creativity and the arts for a second year running."

Exeter-based Knightley writes the majority of material for Show of Hands, which also features multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer, and together they won the Best Duo in the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.

Steve continues his success as a solo artist with his annual tour and has released four solo albums.

BBC Radio 2's Mike Harding recently described Steve as 'one of England's greatest songwriters'.

Special guests will be Phillip Henry and local girl Hannah Martin, who charmed last year's Telling Tales audience when they supported Show of Hands at the Palace.

The festival will include more than 400 pupils from primary and secondary schools in Torbay, exploring their heritage by telling stories and legends about the Torbay coastline.

Already supported by a £4,000 Heritage Lottery Fund grant, pupils and organisers were thrilled to be informed that their second funding application, to the Cooperative Community Fund, has also been successful and they will now be awarded an additional £2,000 by the community group towards the project.

Jess Hunter added: "Now that the large funders are recognising the value that a festival like this brings to schools and the community, we've found support is rapidly growing which will allow us to make this experience have a really positive impact on young people in Torbay and the local community.

"The festival is being supported by personalities such as War Horse author Michael Morpurgo, the award-winning folk band Show of Hands, actor Glyn Kerslake, ballerina Linda Goss, and artist Simon Drew."

As part of the festival there will be creative workshops, competitions, and exhibitions.

A souvenir book will be published in support of the festival by the Torbay Bookshop.