Free tickets to Sunderland's Sunlun Calling festival to see The Futureheads, Craig Charles and more

We’ve teamed up with the festival, which is brought to the city by the same team behind Sunniside Live, for a reader offer for the festival, which takes place in Sunniside Gardens.

Taking place on Friday, July 7 and Sunday, July 9, there’s a whole host of national and local talent to enjoy – as well as the city’s Pride Festival taking place on the stage on the Saturday.

The Friday night of the event will be a Bloc Party featuring top DJs including Craig Charles, Fat Tony, Greg Wilson, Chicago Damn / Forriner, Ian Tweddle and more.

The Sunday, meanwhile, will be dedicated to celebrating Sunderland music, with headliners The Futureheads, Tom A.Smith, Smoove & Turrell, The Lake Poets, This Little Bird, Vandebilt, The Voyd, Docksuns and more.

Sean Maddison and Helen Maddison, who also have Sunniside’s Bar Justice, had great success running Sunniside Live privately and said they can’t wait to welcome the crowds back for SunLun Calling.

"We absolutely love to organise these festivals and it’s great to see the area full of people. Sunniside Live was hugely popular and would sell out, and over the years a lot of people have asked us about when it would be back,” said Sean.

“We’re expecting 12,000-15,000 people across the weekend, which is great for the surrounding businesses, as well as the city as a whole.”

The event will also feature art team Art of Protest Projects who will be at the festival to talk about their street art programme called Future Walls.

They will be offering free creative workshops utilising spray paint and stencils and will be giving an insight into how they will be brightening up the city.

As well as top entertainment across the festival, there will be food and drink stalls as well as plenty of local bars and restaurants in the area to visit.

How to get free tickets

All you have to do to get free tickets is to visit the SunLun Calling ticket site atwww.tickettailor.com/events/sunluncalling and enter the Echo reader code in the promo code section – ECHOFREE