Cate Blanchett to appear at Womadelaide spin-off festival

Cate Blanchett is scheduled to appear at an Australian music and arts festival.

The Earth Station, which was announced four years ago and is a spin-off of the Womadelaide music festival, will take place in Long Gully at Belair National Park in the Adelaide Hills this weekend.

According to The ABC, The Kronos Quartet from the United States are scheduled to start the festival with their performance of a NASA-commissioned piece called 'Sun Rings'.

The event's director Ian Scobie said: "It's this really strongly meditative piece about the scale of the universe and man's really insignificant role within it and yet the fragility of the Earth, so it's a great way to begin the discussions over the weekend."

Australian actress and regular charity campaigner Blanchett will then lead a number of on-stage discussions by scientists, writers and academics, followed by performances from US singer Rickie Lee Jones and Aussie group The Audreys.

Approximately 5,000 people are expected to attend the three-day event, but numbers are being limited to help preserve the bush habitat.

Artists such as award-winning Archie Roach, Martha Wainwright, Os Mutantes, DakhaBrakha and Nathalie Natiembé performed at this year's Womadelaide festival in March.