THE organisers of a North-East music festival plan to celebrate the event's tenth anniversary in style.

Last Saturday's ninth Stanley Blues Festival attracted 8,200 music lovers with a five-band line-up headlined by Blyth-born harmonica player Paul Lamb and his band The King Snakes who are popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

The free event, on the County Durham town's Kings Head Field, is organised by Consett studio Northern Recording and sponsored by Durham County Council and Derwentside District Council.

John Kearney, of the studio, said: "The numbers were the same as last year. We had been expecting a dip. I thought it was a first class day and the line-up was spot on.

"We are starting to organise the tenth festival this week. We don't know what the shape of it will be.

"Ten years is a milestone and we need to make a big splash.

"People in Stanley have enormous pride in it and see it as their own festival. There were 140 people who came down on a bus trip from Blyth and they see it as their own.

"The first festival was in a small tent and featured regional bands and we had 400 people. The next year we moved on to the present site and had 1,000 for Stan Webb's Chicken Shack.''