Street theatre and sport will feature heavily in the 12th Merchant City Festival as Glasgow gears up for the Commonwealth Games.

Hundreds of attractions and performances are planned over five days in July for the event which last year notched up 95,000 visits.

The full programme has been unveiled and features everything from opera-singing "hoodies" to a Catalonian theatre group and a giant coloured rope installation representing the Commonwealth nations.

The festival opens on July 24 when the one-year countdown to the 2014 Games begins.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson said: "Glasgow has a world-class reputation for embracing the power of culture and sport. This enables the city to attract some of Europe's top performers to display their talent at the festival and it encourages others to base themselves in Glasgow strengthening that creative pool of artists.

"The opening day of Merchant City Festival is one day after one year to go to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Sport zones and music and dance performances from around the Commonwealth all give Glaswegians and visitors to the city an opportunity to celebrate the occasion."

Details of all the events can be viewed at merchantcityfestival.com.