It may be a World Heritage Site famed for its Roman and Georgian architecture but Bath is about to be rebuilt – in a virtual world.
A Minecraft version of the city based on the top-selling video game will take shape at this month’s Bath Digital Festival, showing how it could look in a fantasy world made of ‘virtual Lego’. 
People from across the city are being invited to take part in the 48-hour challenge, which starts on Monday February 15.
Players will use Minecraft to construct their buildings out of textured cubes in a 3D world – with prizes for the most creative, biggest, most historic and most futuristic creations.
The competition is one of many events and activities taking place around the city as part of Bath Digital Festival, which runs from February 12 and February 19, and is aimed at those already involved in the city’s burgeoning technology industry or anyone interested in learning more about it.
Festival director Oli Ward said: “In the programme this year we have put together a programme of events with something to appeal to everyone. The digital sector locally is developing a national and international reputation and we’re really keen to give the local community an opportunity to get involved, learn more about the exciting projects happening on their doorsteps, and enjoy being part of one of the UK's most exciting digital clusters.”
Other festival events include a hackathon which will bring together local organisations, residents and the digital and creative sectors to highlight and solve local environmental challenges.
The event, called Bath: Hacked LOVES the Environment, is on February 13 and 14 and will give participants the chance to develop new apps, visualisations and technologies and learn new skills from others.
There will also be talks on cyber law, web analytics, coding workshops and a digital technology career day aimed at inspiring young people by giving them the opportunity to find out more about how to get started.
The Bath and Bristol are has the largest technology cluster in the UK outside London and the area around the Avon river in Central Bath is fast becoming known as Silicon River.
The Bath Digital Festival plays a key role in supporting the development of this cluster.
In the wider South West, 35,000 people now work in the digital technology sector, making it one of the most significant sectors for local employment.
The Bath Digital Festival looks to celebrate this growth and the exciting projects being developed locally. It also looks to give families living in the region an opportunity to learn more about digital.
This year’s festival is being sponsored by Invest Bristol & Bath, the region’s inward investment agency. One of its priorities is to attract new digital and creative companies to the region.
Invest Bristol & Bath digital sector specialist Ben Shorrock said: “The Bristol and Bath digital technology cluster is establishing itself on the global stage as a place where innovative and ground-breaking ideas are born.
“Bath Digital Festival is an excellent showground for these innovations and this year’s exciting programme demonstrates why our region is the UK’s only fast-growing globally significant digital technology cluster.”
The festival is now in its fourth year and is growing every year. More than 30 events will be staged this year over the course of the week. The festival hopes to attract more than 2,500 students, families, tech sector employees and small business owners to Bath to take part in workshops, talks, career days, competitions and social events.
Coinciding with the festival, the annual SPARKies tech sector award ceremony on February will celebrate the best technology projects, companies and individuals in the region across 15 categories.
For further details about the festival and to book tickets for events visit http://www.bathdigitalfestival.com/
