JANET Jackson, Bill Clinton and Brooke Shields will be the stars at this year's Life Ball, Vienna's colourful Aids charity event, on May 21

Clinton, a regular guest, will return for the ball's 19th edition, which will commemorate 30 years since the discovery of the Aids virus, HIV. Other notable guests will include UNAids chief Michel Sidibe and actress Shields.

The evening will begin with a gala dinner at the Imperial Palace sponsored by Austrian President Heinz Fischer, followed by an extravagant red carpet fashion show and party at Vienna's neo-gothic city hall. The Canadian designer duo Dsquared2 - Dean und Dan Caten - are behind this year's fashion show, memorably held on a red-ribbon catwalk in past years.

The Life Ball - one of the biggest Aids charity events in the world, attracting some 40,000 revellers every year - raised more than R12.5million for international and national HIV and Aids projects last year. Last year, UNAids and Aids Life, the organisation of Life Ball co-founder Gery Keszler joined forces to raise funds and awareness about Aids.