After a year's hiatus, Kidfest Bermuda is back on board and ready to bring top-quality performances to family audiences.

Bermuda resident and former dancer Paula Maguire, who formed Kidfest five years ago, said the concert series will kick off January 17 with a performance by guitarist and singer Tom Chapin.

Mr. Chapin has a reputation as a "natural-born entertainer''' who can captivate audiences of all ages.

Mr. Chapin has gained widespread acclaim for his recordings aimed at children ages four to 11. He received the Parents' Choice Award and was nominated for a Grammy Award for his song "Around the World and Back Again''.

He has also recorded six albums of adult-oriented material, including "Join the Jubilee'' and "Let Me Back Into Your Life''.

Mrs. Maguire said she decided to start the season with a music artists to encourage audience involvement.

Although Kidfest has primarily pulled American and Canadian artists, she hopes to expand in the upcoming year to bring in European groups to make the programme "as diversified and international as possible''.

"I want to bring in artists that not only are interesting, but who are also on the cutting edge of new contemporary theatre so children get a taste of where artists are going in 1999,'' she said.

"I look for artists that take chances who are trying themselves to grow and go beyond what's already been said and done artistically.

"Children's theatre is very honest -- if they're not interested, the first person who will hear about it is the performer through the audience. That's why you have to give children the best, because they know when they're being shortchanged,'' she added.

Mrs. Maguire said the impetus behind developing Kidfest was to expose local children to many different kinds of art and cultural expression.

"I want children to respect what goes into a live performance...There's an urgency, an immediacy, that you don't get from television or movies,'' she said.

"But the whole idea is to give them a broad base from which to refer -- an appreciation for the arts only comes from exposure to the arts,'' she added.

"Sometimes it only takes one experience in childhood to completely change you.'' The Tom Chapin show is at the City Hall Theatre. Tickets are $15 on sale at the Bookmart in the Phoenix store.

TOM CHAPIN -- Guitarist, singer had reputation as a "natural-born entertainer''.