A quick guide to installing and using Festival (written 12/01/2005):
1. http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/download.html and follow the link to one of the mirrors.
2. Download speech_tools , festival , festlex_OALD and festvox_rablpc16k
3. Unpack them all by typing >"tar zvxf " followed by the package name. You should end up with two directories, speech toola and festival
4. Compile and install the speech tools first, this should be as easy as typing ./configure then make then make install
5. Compile festival, you don't even need to install it if you don't want to.
6. When festival finishes installing you can cd to the bin subdirectory and test you install. Try typing ./festival -b '(SayText "Hello World")'
7. Type ./festival -h to see more options. The only one I use it --tts to read from a file.