KICKING The Bucket isn’t the name of the latest rock band or board game. It’s Oxford’s newest festival which opens on Monday.

And it’s all based around dying. But however morbid it sounds, organiser Liz Rothschild is determined to put a positive spin on the three week festival and encourage people to think and plan for their own end in the most practical way possible.

And with huge names like Blackwell’s, Pegasus, The Old Fire Station, The Hub restaurant, The Four Pillars, Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxfork, Nosebag and the Pitt Rivers Museum, jumping on the bandwagon to host a variety of events from art and exhibitions to readings and theatre, you’ll be spoiled for choice.

There are some really fun and quirky events mixed into the Kicking The Bucket programme, from a funny play called Home Death, to a Mexican fiesta, and an exhibition called Living It Up.

“We have also got lots of events for people to stumble upon. We’ve got stuff on in schools, and at Bond Square, so we can interact with people as they do their shopping,” Liz says.

So what else can people expect? “The nuts and bolts of funeral design, assisted dying, information on suicide, student counselling, meditation, fundraising for Cruise and Sobell House. But we are not the God squad,” she smiles “and only have one inter-faith event.”

And why is Liz, who runs the Westmill Woodland Burial Ground near Faringdon, doing all this?

“I’m just passionate about celebrating death. I just want people to know about the excellent resources available to people in Oxfordshire, because if nothing else, putting the Kicking The Bucket programme away in a drawer means that when the time comes they will have all the information they need.

“And ultimately Kicking The Bucket aims to encourage people to have these conversations before they die and give them time to reflect and decide what they want out of life, because it’s not a dress rehearsal. We could drop off the perch at any time. So I think that engaging with death is quite life-enhancing.”

And with a background in theatre and the arts, Liz was the ideal person to take the project on. “For me it’s been a natural progression – the gathering of lots of different threads of different things I’ve done with my life.

“And through Kicking The Bucket we are now part of something for the future.”