CANBERRA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- A special event combining Baroque music with astonishing acrobats will be the forerunner for the 25th Canberra International Music Festival (CIMF) which opened on Thursday featuring Bach's music as one of its themes.

The festival has more than 40 events over 10 days in different places in Canberra, attracting around 9,000 audiences come to the festival, one third of which come outside Australia' capital.

"You've never heard a Bach festival like this before: it is unique in the way we link Bach to indigenous Australia and to Africa," Artistic Director Roland Peelman said on Thursday.

According to the introductions of the CIMF website, the festival, founded in 1994, has been held annually since 1997 and is now a significant event on the Australian Capital Territory (ACT)'s cultural calendar.

The Festival is held over 10 days in the month of May each year and features concerts and lectures. While the early focus was on chamber music, its scope has broadened to include classical, jazz, contemporary music and so on.

"We practice on Monday and Wednesday for this concert for a long time. It is the first time we come to the stage of this fantastic festival for some of us. It is very exciting," Marion Swift, a singer of the festival, said.

The festival this year also brings a fresh idea of enjoying music in various places. The lovers of the more traditional style will have the opportunity to have breakfast and chat with artistic director Roland Peelman about the music of J.S. Bach. The organizers also place concerts in National Botanic Gardens, Mount Stromlo Observatory and even Beaver Galleries, which is more diverse than ever.

"CIMF is both inventive, and traditional, looking at the future whilst embracing the past," Peelman said.