The Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, now the largest of its kind in the world, announced a programme of over 100 events yesterday.

Scottish music acts including Idlewild, King Creosote, and Sons and Daughters are part of the line-up, alongside film screenings, visual art, theatre and drama events.

There will also be a new two-day literary festival featuring Scottish writers Sheila Puri and Leela Soma, and Scottish poet and playwright Liz Lochead.

The festival, now in its second year, will run from October 1-19 and take in major arts and community venues across Scotland.

The event is led by the Mental Health Foundation, and celebrates achievements in the arts of people with experience of mental health issues. All the artists performing at the festival have had a connection with mental health.

Lee Knifton, festival director, said: "The festival aims to explore the definition of mental health, and our core purpose is to try to achieve social change in Scotland in relation to mental health issues.

"The arts are unique in bringing people together, and are generally the only way you can ever explore the meaning of something that's contested politically and socially, like mental health. We're trying to keep a positive focus on messages of recovery and hope.

"We're exploring stigma, discrimination and the relation between creativity and mental health. We like challenging ideas about what mental health is. "Positive mental health is one of the most political issues at the moment and a lot of the projects explore mental health in the context of key social issues. Most of our messages are about hope, triumph and possibility."

Rod Jones, guitarist with Idlewild, said: "The festival is great for raising awareness of organisations like Breathing Space, a confidential phoneline which provides an invaluable service, and which I've used myself.

"There are a vast array of people out there that need help. Mental health issues can affect anyone, it doesn't matter whether they're a member of a band, someone working at a restaurant or the Prime Minister."