BBC Radio 3 has announced a new all-night music festival celebrating “fizzing creativity emerging in the North East”.
After Dark Festival will run in Newcastle from March 18 to 20, which is the weekend of the spring equinox.
The news comes after the BBC announced it will spend at least £25m over the next five years right across the North East to fund network TV production, talent development and support for the creative sector.
The festival will run from dawn to dusk at Sage Gateshead and The Star and Shadow Cinema.
Performances will include classical, electronic and jazz artists as well as a traditional Indian raga from Leeds-based sitarist Jasdeep Singh Degun.
Radio 3 presenters Elizabeth Alker, Hannah Peel, Sara Mohr-Pietsch, Jennifer Lucy Allan, McMillan and Matthew Sweet will interview artists and lead the audience through the night.
Poet and writer Ian Macmillan will kick off the event at 6pm on March 18 at Sage Gateshead on the River Tyne.
Manchester-based rapper and DJ Iceboy Violet and violinist Rakhi Singh will perform at The Star and Shadow Cinema.
Radio 3 controller Alan Davey said: “BBC Radio 3 has always championed alternative, adventurous music, from late night jazz with Freeness, amazing collaborations in Late Junction, to eclectic electronic and acoustic mixes in our Night Tracks series.
“That’s why we’re thrilled to be working with Sage Gateshead and TUSK Music to bring After Dark Festival to the North East.
“This is a brilliant opportunity to celebrate the tremendous talent across the North, and to bring top alternative artists like Kinbrae and Memotone to as many of our audiences as possible, both in live venues and across BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds.”
The performances will be broadcast on Radio 3 and BBC Sounds between March 24 to 27, ending with an all-night edition of Night Tracks as the clocks change to British Summer Time.
Tickets are available online from March 18.
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