Brilliant Summer Streets Festival Line-Up is Announced

The dazzling line-up for this year's Summer Streets Festival has been revealed.

The free, two-day festival of music, culture and community will be on Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16 at Cliffe Park, Roker.

Summer Streets will once again have three performance stages, an eclectic mix of musical genres and plenty of activities and workshops for families to enjoy.

Festival organiser Ross Millard, guitarist and vocalist with The Futureheads, said he was delighted with the line-up for this year's event: "It's always been important to us to present an eclectic mix of musical genres - what we want to do is give people a taste of many types of music, some of which they may not have heard before, in a fun festival setting that's completely free to come along to.

"I'd like to thank Arts Council England, Sunderland City Council and The Cultural Spring for their generous support in making this year's event possible."

Headline acts for this year include The Young'Uns, north east folk favourites who have won the BBC Radio 2 Folk Award three times. They'll appear on the evening of Saturday, July 15.

Sunday's headliners are The Original Pinettes, an all-female brass band from New Orleans, who are performing thanks to a partnership with Durham BRASS. The ground-breaking party band have previously performed with Arcade Fire and Katy Perry.

Saturday will be hosted by BBC Look North's Jeff Brown and will also feature Big Red & The Grinners (an Americana/bluegrass band); Baghdaddies (an exuberant brass band); singer songwriter Lee J Toby and Houghton Brass Band.

On the BBC Music Introducing North East stage, there will be performances from Sunderland band Roxy Girls, plus Headcage, rapper Reali-T, Frankie Jobling, Just B and Sarah Johnstone.

"As well as some great music, we've also got some great outdoor arts. Levantes Dance will present High Tea with a Twist which is an amazing aerial performance, while 2Faced Dance will perform Last Orders, which is about the vulnerability behind male bravado," explained Ross.

Sunderland Music Hub will be delivering workshops throughout the day, while Curious Arts, Chalk and Tiny Tweeties will provide fun and entertainment for younger members of the audience.

Sunday will be compered by Frankie Francis, singer with Frankie & The Heartstrings.

Sunday's other headline acts include Hannabiell & The Midnight Blue Collective, an Afro fusion collective which fuses Latin and African percussion with brass, blues and jazz, and Sunderland rock band Slug, who have just finished touring their third album.

Sunday will also feature the first festival performance for Blowdry Colossus, a new musical venture of Field Music's Peter Brewis.

Other Sunday performers include north east musical collective Dilutey Juice; South Shields singer and guitarist Cortney (correct) Dixon; regional pop-punk band bigfatbig, and Sunderland Symphony Orchestra.

"Sunday will also feature Folk Dance Remixed, which will basically be a huge ceilidh where everyone can have a dance. Like the festival as a whole, Folk Dance Remixed will incorporate a variety of musical genres - hip hop, soul, dance and disco - which should get everyone up dancing!" said Ross.

Coun John Price, Cabinet Member for Vibrant City at Sunderland City Council, said: "Summer Streets Festival has long been one of the highlights of the city's summer music scene.

"We're delighted to be supporting this hugely popular music, community and cultural festival to grow into a two day event for the first time. Extending it across two days means that even more people will be able to enjoy everything it has to offer."

There will be a range of food and drink stalls, including some favourites from around the city. For more information, go to www.summerstreetsfestival.com.