A popular music festival is returning to Tunbridge Wells and hopes to be better than ever.

Local and Live will be celebrating its ninth year as Kent's biggest free, original, unsigned music festival, but this year will be held in the idyllic surroundings of Calverley Grounds.

The event that regularly welcomes over 20,000 people across four days will be held on the August bank-holiday weekend, and is set to be the biggest yet.

In order to accommodate the growing crowds and to promote as much of Kent's musical talent as possible, the main stage has been moved from its original home in The Pantiles to the Calverley Grounds in the centre of Tunbridge Wells.

The four-day festival welcomes everyone from teens, to couples, families with children, senior citizens and regular music lovers - everybody feels at home.

The event which will be running from Friday August 22 to Monday August 25 is the largest free event organised in the town and the musical talent is set to be exceptional.

It continues to be free to the public with the support of sponsorship and donations to help meet its costs. The smooth running of the event is down to the flocks of volunteers that help each year.

Event organiser and musician, Paul Dunton, is hoping to avoid the disappointment of last years event that had to be cancelled at last minute due to funding issues.

He was offered the use of The Forum on the nearby Common which held approximately 250 people to hold fund-raising concerts during the weekend the festival should have been held.

He said: "We had amazing support last year after the event was cancelled. A lot of people were obviously disappointed but when we advertised the fund-raising events everyone really got behind us and we raised £5,000."

The headliners for the event have been released by Mr Dunton, he said: "We had four headliners last year that didn't get the opportunity to perform because of the festival being called off.

"I wanted to honour these artists a headlining spot this year. Because there was only two headline spots over the weekend I drew the names out of a hat."

Freddy Green and a Few Good Folk will be headling on Friday August 22, supported by Will Joseph Cook. Maidstone band, Sound Casters, will be headlining Sunday August 24 supported by Goldie Reed.

Mr Dunton is still looking for a main sponsor whilst also running a handful of smaller fundraising opportunities. He said the support of the public is vital to the running of the festival, "where we have changed location and format we have encountered new costs and problems, we have had to provide a stage which costs around £8,000.

"We have had to look into port-a-loo's and other public conveniences that we didn't have to think about previously.

"Regardless of these new costs, to see how the festival has grown since year one when a few hundred people attended to being held in Calverley Grounds is amazing." - Paul Dunton

"I like to think people appreciate the way the weekend is run and this is why they keep coming back."

Members of the public can become festival 'angels' for just £25, Paul said: "Angels is a form of crowd-funding, in return the participants get t-shirts, a copy of the brochure which they will be published in, wristbands and a compilation CD. Its a great way to reward them for their support."

Local businesses are able to raise their profile through advertising in event leaflets, brochures and sponsorship.

Local and Live offers a 'Headline (Gold) Sponsorship' along with 'Bronze' and 'Silver' sponsorship's. Mr Dunton said: "The sooner you get involved with Local & Live, the greater profile we can give you."

The event features close to 200 original artists, many of which come from Tunbridge Wells and the surrounding areas.

For info on how to get involved, click here: http://www.localandlive.org/sponsorship/