Laughter and music has been ringing out on the streets of Shrewsbury today as the cartoon festival gets into full swing.

The market square has been abuzz with crowds who have come to see the cartoonists producing Big Boards, caricatures and “reverse” caricatures, with live bonus as an added bonus.

Political cartoonist Martin Rowson didn’t let a power failure at Birmingham New Street prevent him from attending the festival. He made one taxi driver very happy by getting a cab all the way to Shrewsbury. He gave a talk entitled Giving Offence: The Greatest Gift, the festival’s sole non family-friendly offering.

You can see lots more pictures, taken and tweeted throughout the day, at the Bloghorn Twitter feed.

The Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival is under way and recent volcanic news events are providing good material for cartoonists.

Three artists from Australia were invited this year, but only Jason Chatfield, above, was able to make it. Luckily Jason started travelling long before Eyjafjallajokull did its thing.

At the time of writing, 4pm on the Friday, the Big Boards in the market square are starting to take shape. Also to be found in the square are caricaturists and “reverse caricaturing” (you provide the face, seaside-board style, the cartoonists provide the body of your choice!)

Elsewhere there are cartoon exhibitions to be seen, on the theme of Magic, Myths and Mystery. And at the Darwin Shopping Centre, the HuMurals – a collection of single-panel cartoons that form a huge cartoon mural – are progressing.

The good people of Shrewsbury, who are no doubt used to the invasion of cartoonists as this is the 7th year of the festival, all seem to be joining in the fun – and there’s plenty more to come on Saturday and Sunday.

You can see lots more pictures, taken and tweeted throughout the day, at the Bloghorn Twitter feed.

The Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival is now officially up and running. Your Bloghorn team will be out and about in the town today, Friday April 23, checking out the drawing, caricaturing, workshops and exhibitions. Watch this space, there’s plenty to come.

The last-minute endorsements are flowing in for this weekend’s activities with the latest being Happy Barry [adopts advertising tone-of-voice] – the official beer of the cartoon festival [stops it]. Barry the Shrew does sterling work as one of the public faces of the festival and deserves a drink as a result.

Thirsty visitors and cartoonists will be able to enjoy a pint at pubs across town in between the events. The festival organisers would like to thank the Salopian Brewery for making it.

Bloghorn is looking forward to whetting his metaphorical foghorn when he gets there. The first person to say ‘‘This tastes funny … geddit?’’ has to get the next round in.

The Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival starts this Thursday, April 22, and runs until Sunday, April 25. We’ll be showcasing cartoons submitted for exhibition at Shrewsbury this week, and throughout the festival weekend. All cartoons are on the theme of Magic, Myth and Mystery.