Marras Festival will rock this year's Durham Miners' Gala

Marras Festival will be held at East Durham College's Houghall site, just outside the city centre, on the Gala weekend in July.

The festival, which will include camping and music, will be held on on Friday and Saturday, July 7 and 8.

Indie rockers The Lightning Seeds will headline and the weekend will also feature performances by local bands and a tent organised by Newcastle underground club World Headquarters (WHQ).

Numbers are limited to around 5,000.

A new Facebook page promises Marra will be 'a music festival set in a beautiful country park setting, among mature woodland, only 10minutes from the historic Durham City and the Traditional Durham Miners Gala where 150,000 people march in celebration of mining heritage, workers rights, and the trade union movement.'

"This year, we will add to the tradition with some of the country's best rock and pop bands , the superb WHQ club tent and a funfair for everyone," it adds.

"In the spirit of 'Red Wedge' and 'Rock against Racism.' we will have a party that celebrates all the good things about music.

"We are absolutely chufffed to be not only having The Lightning Seeds onstage on the Saturday night, which will be a culmination of a great live music weekend, but also we have a rare trip out for the WHQ team, in our club tent.

"Tom will be bringing WHQ luminaries such as Mungos HiFi, Exhale, Joonipah and many more to the two evenings of gettindown dancing."