Never mind rock festivals, these days it is stone festivals that are attracting visitors to towns and cities across the UK and more of them are planning their own stone events.

For stonemasons who enjoy exploring their artistic side there will be no shortage of festivals to choose from in 2013.

Gloucester hosts the first of the headline events with a festival on 24-27 May at the Llanthony Secunda Priory. It is being organised by Carrie Horwood of Cat’s Eye Carving.

At this year’s Ludlow Stone Festival at the end of May Carrie’s carving was voted as the best piece both by the public and her fellow carvers and at the auction at the end of the event it sold for £660.

But Carrie says organising the event at Gloucester is hard enough work and that she will not be carving during the festival… probably.

Then comes the Bristol Festival of Stone on 31 May-9 June on Bristol harbour side.

This event includes a three-,four- and five-day stone carving competition with more than 50 contestants expected. There will also be demonstrations of stone carving, lectures and masterclasses during the event.

The stone carving theme will be backed up by street theatre and live music and to round it all off there will be a banquet for 500 with presentations, prizes (Clipsham Quarry Company has offered a block of stone from its quarry as one of the prizes), music, dance and, as ever, an auction of the sculptures created during the event.

From 21 to 23 June it is the turn of the European Stone Carving Festival that will be held at the Castle in Lincoln although it is being organised in conjunction with the stonemasons at the Cathedral.

The event travels around Europe and is held at a different city each year. Last year it went to Trondheim, Norway, attracting 98 participants from 18 countries – and not just European countries. The work judged to be best was a depiction of the Norse God Odin carved by Graham Wilson of Australia.

The European Stone Carving Festival has only been to the UK once before. That was in 2003 when it was held at Canterbury Cathedral.

It has become a major part of stone’s calendar each year since it was inaugurated by Freiburg Technical College for Stonemasonry & Stone Carving in Germany in 1999. The college still runs it in conjunction with each year’s host city.

Then in September, VAR (Vernacular Architecture Revival) plans to hold a second Stone Festival after the success of its first 12-day event at Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle this year.