BRIERFEST will be be back for a second year month, bigger than ever.

The two-day music event based at Brierfield WMC over the first May bank holiday weekend will feature three stages and showcase 32 different bands and artists.

The festival gets underway on Saturday, May 4 when Chris Allen, current frontman of The Troggs, will officially open the fund-raiser for Pendleside Hospice.

Luke Hamilton, one of the event organisers, said: “For our first year last year we raised £3,500 for the hospice and we’re hoping that we can can even better than that this time.

“We were all surprised at how popular the event was - it just took off. It was only meant to be a day-long event but it grew into a two-day festival and bringing it back for a second year we wanted to make it even bigger and better.”

A third outdoor stage has been added to the two stages inside the Walter Street club.

“It will be slightly weather dependent but we’ve got our fingers crossed,” said Luke. “We had some great weather last year which really helped.

“The idea is that the indoor stages will both have timed programmes of who is performing when but the outdoor will be set up so that anyone can come a long and just jam together. If there’s anyone who wants to do some poetry or play an instrument, the stage is set up for them. We’re hoping that members of different bands and artists will get together for impromptu jam sessions.”

The line-up for the indoor stages features some well-known local bands plus some up and coming artists.

“There are so many good bands and musicians in the area, one of the reasons we set up the festival was to give them a chance to show the public what they could do,” said Luke. “A few of the bands who played last year are coming back but we’ve tried to introduce quite a lot of new names to the line-up.”

A barbecue will be running over the weekend for festival goers. Tickets are £5 per day or £8 for the weekend, available from the club or over the weekend.