A BID to lure the musical pomp of the Last Night of the Proms to the Tees Valley is launched today.

The BBC team that organises the event is visiting the region today on a reconnaissance mission to select a possible venue for a regional satellite concert.

Opera singer Suzannah Clarke has been leading the campaign to tempt the Radio 3 team to chose one of five locations to go through to the next stage.

All five councils in the Tees Valley area have nominated a possible site for the event, which will take place on September 9 next year.

The bid is being supported by The Northern Echo.

The representatives will be visiting the Hartlepool Marina, Stockton Barrage, Gisborough Hall, near Guisborough, east Cleveland, the site of the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art and Darlington's Market Square, to weigh up the possibilities of hosting an event there.

Miss Clarke said: "It would be wonderful if the rest of England sees our area host a top-class classical event."

A BBC spokesman said the site visits were taking place at a very early stage of searching for a suitable location for the musical extravaganza.

Hartlepool Mayor Stuart Drummond said: "We feel that we have put together a very good bid and we hope the BBC will agree.

" If we are chosen to host this prestigious event, it will be a massive boost for the local economy and town's image as a whole."

A spokesman for the Arts Council England North-East said: "For the BBC Last Night Of The Proms to come to the Tees Valley would be a fantastic treat, bringing to the region all of the prestige and glamour, as well as all of the fun which the world-wide audience for this event enjoys every year."

A Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council spokesman said: "We would be delighted if Gisborough Hall was chosen as it has already hosted many musical events in this beautiful location."

John Lowther, chief executive of Tees Valley Partnership, said: "Staging one of the Proms in the Park concerts would be a superb boost for the whole of the area and what is particularly exciting is that we can offer a number of possible first-class venues.

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