The National Maritime Museum Cornwall has been unveiled as the headline sponsor for the 2013 Falmouth Spring Festival.

The museum has stepped in as the title sponsor as it gears up to celebrate its tenth birthday.

Funded and organised by Falmouth BID to raise Falmouth’s profile and help support town businesses, the Spring Festival is the first main event on the Falmouth calendar.

Celebrating Falmouth’s open spaces through music, dance, sporting events, walks and spring cleans across the town, the festival involves schools, volunteer groups and charities in a celebration Falmouth’s beautiful coast and historic town centre.

Among the many community events will be a ‘Paint the Town Yellow Day’, that sees each town primary school, 3,000 daffodils, Falmouth University students and around 100 businesses working together to design colourful, spring themed shop front displays to brighten up the town.

With exciting new activities planned for this year, Festival highlights include: Falmouth Spring Clean Day on Saturday, March 9, the Paint the Town Yellow Day on Thursday, March 14 and the Maritime Museum’s tenth birthday on Saturday, March 16. On Sunday, March 17 the Zumba Zestifal will roll into town, with the Run Falmouth Half-Marathon on Saturday, March 23.

New for 2013, is the addition of a folk music and cider fest on Sunday, March 24.

Richard Wilcox, Falmouth BID manager said: “I’m thrilled to have an organisation of the calibre of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall on board and it perhaps is a measure of how far the festival has come in only two years.

“The events are intended to be diverse and eclectic and 2013 will see a creative mix of new and established activities to hopefully attract many more visitors. And now with the support of the National Maritime Museum Cornwall, we can look to grow and develop the festival in exciting ways.

Tamsin Loveless, from the National Maritime Museum Cornwall said: “Falmouth’s Spring Festival celebrates the town, it’s people and it’s heritage and what better way to celebrate our tenth birthday year than supporting this community event.”