Bang the drum for music festival.

A NEW music festival gets underway in Bangor later this month, and organisers hope it will turn into an annual event.

The driving force behind Bang Bangor, which runs October 28-31, are art and music lovers Aled Ifan, Llio Hughes and Bethan Lloyd, who decided to take the plunge after the city's cultural centre drew its curtains for the last time.

"The closure of Theatr Gwynedd was the last straw," said Aled.

"Bangor provides very little culturally for young people and to think we have over 10,000 students here, it makes perfect sense a music festival should be an annual event.

"Like many young people from the area, we've been starved of good quality live shows in Bangor.

"We have the venues, we have the talent, we just need someone to organise it all, so we decided to jump into the deep end try and get some vibe back into Bangor."

During the four-day festival, music lovers will enjoy more than 50 performers at venues across the city. Acts include Scottish alternative folk singer James Yorkston, Welsh acts Race Horses and Jen Jeniro, Cardiff's Sweetbaboo, ex-Gorky's' John Lawrence, local indie band Mr Huw and Wrexham's up and coming The Roseville Band.

Activities include a hip-hop night, folk and acoustic sessions, comedy night, Poetica at Blue Sky, best of Bethesda evening, battle of the bands, rapping workshop for under-16s and an under-16s gig, along with live performances at Patrick's, Glob, Fat Cat, The Greeks, The Menai, Bar 342 and the Rugby Club.

Gold tickets, costing pounds 35, give access to all venues and gigs as well as discounted meals and drinks.

One-off tickets are also available at Palas Print Pendref, High Street, Bangor (01248 362676) and Cob Records, Bangor (01248 353020).. More details at bangbangor.com