Over 200 art performances will be staged at museums and cultural venues along the Suzhou Creek during an annual downtown culture festival to begin next week. The Suzhou Creek Culture and Arts Festival, to run between September 6 and October 11, will also include a series of singing and writing contests for citizens, as well as exhibitions to show the changes of the downtown area during the 40 years of reform and opening-up, the Putuo District government said on Wednesday. The writing contest, hosted by Shanghai Writers’ Association and themed on the city's great changes, has attracted over 3,700 participants, ranging in age from 8 to 98 years.