The town’s biggest free music festival returns in August when Local & Live sets up in Calverley Grounds, promising another fabulous weekend of music and fun.

The FREE music festival is a gift to the local community from the town’s thriving music scene and its local businesses. The collaboration between the artistic and commercial communities breathes life into the town centre on a weekend that is known for being quiet. Almost entirely funded by local business, RTW Together BID, particularly Maxipay Accounting Services as it’s headline sponsor. This is the third year the local employer has been a major supporter of the festival and its input has been invaluable to the security of the event.

Held over the bank holiday weekend from 23th to 26th August, the festival draws thousands to Calverley Grounds with its showcase of the very best the local music scene has to offer before moving to Sussex Mews on bank holiday Monday. From modest beginnings on the Pantiles bandstand, the event is in its 18th year and has become the biggest free event in the area.

Once again the event will be centered on the main stage in Calverley Grounds, taking advantage of the natural Amphitheatre. It will be bolstered by a food village offering produce from exclusively local traders including Hattons, Sankeys and Roddy Burger. In addition to providing summer entertainment for Tunbridge Wells residents, it draws crowds from a much wider area, generating trade for businesses in the town centre.

Paul Dunton, Founder of Local & Live added; “We cannot wait to bring the Local & Live Festival 2024 to Calverley Grounds. We are so thrilled that this event is now a much-loved part of many local residents’ Summer calendar, and each year it grows bigger and better, attracting an audience of thousands. Retailers and hospitality businesses in the town tell us this event has helped bolster trade on a weekend previously renowned for being quiet, as families take holidays before schools start back. We cannot wait to bring another stellar line up of local talented musicians to you all.”

A characteristic feature of Local & Live is that the artists are drawn from the local music community playing their own original material, unlike most festivals who rely on high profile national performers. This gives visitors the chance to experience the wealth of talent on their own doorstep, and for many it starts a lifelong following for local artists. For the artists it provides an opportunity to experience playing in front of a substantial crowd, often their biggest audience, and to have their own work heard.

In recent years, Local & Live has been praised for its breadth of appeal, with a family friendly environment in the afternoons morphing into an energetic festival experience in the evenings. Around 60 artists perform during the four-day festival, most on the main stage in Calverley Grounds and the others at The Forum and The Trinity Theatre Gardens and Sussex Mews.

To find out more visit www.localandlive.org