Oxfordshire is 1,000 years old this year and organisations across the county are planning events to celebrate its history, culture and future.

The plan is to open up unexplored places, reinvent public spaces and introduce people to new and exciting creative experiences.

Celebrations include festivals, special events and anniversaries along with street performance, giant picnics, ambitious choral projects and events along the River Thames.

Throughout the year, a huge range of events, many of which are free, is being put on by a wide variety of organisations through partnerships and collaborations reflecting the scope of cultural experiences the county has to offer, in the arts, sport, science, food and the environment.

Many of the county's 70-plus annual festivals will also be marking Oxfordshire's millennium in their own ways, with folk, film and literature festivals all getting involved.

The UK's first children's food festival, Munch at the Clumps, will also form part of the anniversary celebrations, along with Oxfordshire's first dance festival.

There will also be a huge outdoor Festival Concert in South Park, Oxford, in the spring, with musicians and singers from across the county.

First Great Western will be naming one of its railway engines Oxfordshire 2007 for the occasion, and the Oxford Bus Company has already branded an entire bus in the festival's livery.

"Oxfordshire 2007 will turn the county inside out," said Sarah Mayfield, chief executive of Oxford Inspires, the county's cultural development agency.