Oxjam music festival will be jamming as it comes to Wakefield for the first time

Oxjam Wakefield will host more than 30 bands across five venues in the city centre later this month.

READ:Olly Murs full UK and Ireland tour dates – and how to get ticketsThe festival is being organised by Backstage Academy student Matty Townsend who is following in the footsteps of Oxjam festivals up and down the country to raise money for charity and raise a glass to some of the best local acts in the region.

He said: “It’s a brilliant way to help Oxfam and it should be a great event.

“There’s a real collective spirit about it. It’s just £8 to see 30 bands and you know the money is going to a good cause rather than going in someone’s back pocket.

“Headliners Virginmarys are a really popular act and Dead Naked Hippies are starting to get a lot of attention – I think we got them at the right time.”

READ: Radio 2 DJ Mark Radcliffe reveals he has cancerOther acts taking to the stage on the day include On Hollow Ground, Sauce, Frazer, Isolate, The Mechanist, Clown, Thomas Wilby Gang, Alpha Shallows, and Behind Blue Eyes.

The main stage will be at Warehouse 23 on Smyth Street, metal bands will perform at Black Mass on King Street, and the Art House on Drury Lane will host poetry and spoken word.

Local acts, including bands represented by Wakefield record label Philophobia, will take to the stage at the Hop on Bank Street, and Now Serving on Market Street will host a reggae party from Rum Riddimz Run.

Money raised through Oxjam festivals, which have featured 60,000 musicians have played to an audience of 1.5 million people, goes toward the charity’s development and emergency relief work.

The festival will run noon to 11pm, followed by an after-party, on Sunday October 21.

Tickets are available online at wegottickets.com and skiddle.com