PHYSICAL Fest 4 may sound like a festival of physical exercises, but is rather more interesting than that.

Presented by Liverpool’s outstanding physical theatre/dance company, Momentum, it is a festival designed to show just how far physical theatre has come these days.

The nine days of the festival in Liverpool, between June 4-12, provide workshops in physical theatre run by some of the world’s best practitioners.

But, this year, there will also be five free events open to the general public and all with free admission.

Among those running workshops will be Greek performer Selina Papoutseli, international actor/ director Ira Seidenstein, Liverpool dance/theatre artist Maria Malone and Japanese actor Yoshi Oida.

Momentum – performers Yorgos Karamalegos and Elinor Randle – will also be conducting workshops.

The festival is co- presented by the theatre school Hope Street who will host most of the public events at 7.30pm at its headquarters behind the Everyman Theatre.

This will include the festival launch on June 4 which includes the British premiere of Desert Story 2, first created for a Berlin festival and performed by its creator Selina Papoutseli.

A film night on June 5 will also be open to the public and show films from the international physical theatre world.

On June 8, participants in the festival will present a work in progress Une Filet d’Amour from Ira Seidenstein and Jam, an hour-long improvisation.

June 11, at 7pm, will offer a question and answer session with Yoshi Oida, a performer who trained in traditional Japanese theatre but found his own style working with the theatre icon Peter Brook for many years.

The closing party of the festival on June 12, at Bar 3345, at 5.30pm, will be open to the public where they can meet the Physical Fest team and enjoy "drinks and nibbles".