THE line-up for this summer's Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival in Colne has been revealed.

Running over the Bank Holiday from Friday, August 25 to Sunday, August 27, the festival will see award-winning blues artists from both sides of the Atlantic making their way to East Lancashire.

Tickets have now gone on sale with an impressive line-up of contemporary blues artists set to play Colne.

These include Grammy-nominated singer Janiva Magness, multiple British Blues Awards winners King King, rising homegrown stars Joanne Shaw Taylor and Aynsley Lister and Texas-based Lucky Peterson.

This year the running of the festival has been taken over by Colne Town Council and along with festival director Jason Elliott it has implemented a number of changes.

These include reducing the festival to three days and changing the ticketing arrangements.

“Since we decided to take the route of dropping the heritage acts, choosing instead to showcase the best of the contemporary blues scene, we have been stunned by the response of musicians from around the world asking to play here in Colne,” said festival director, Jason Elliott.

“Every one of this summer's headliners is supported by other acts who could just as easily be topping the bill themselves.

"We are now in a situation where we are being courted by other huge international bands looking for a slot in 2018 already, such has

been the buzz around what we have been doing.”

The festival gets underway on the Friday with triple bills at both Pendle Hippodrome and the main stage at the Muni.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons a range of highly talented professional acts will rub shoulders with the cream of emerging young talent, selected by the Jessica Foxley Unsigned project. Blues star Tom Attah will also be hosting an acoustic blues showcase at Colne Little Theatre. Festivalgoers can buy a ticket for the afternoon sessions at three main venues - the Muni, the Pendle Hippodrome and Little Theatre - allowing them to choose from the wide range of musicians on offer.

Each of the daytime sessions will be topped off by a band, hand picked for dancing to, before the venues close for a swift clean up and for the stage to be re-set for the evening sessions.

These will be individual, ticket-only shows, each one with three acts, including headliners. Each one of these triple-billed shows will be priced lower than the standard entry ticket for just the headliner.

“We appreciate the need for financial sustainability and to look after residents' hard earned money,” said Cllr Joe Cooney, chairman of the blues working group, “but we also have a responsibility to provide the best possible services for them, so we've negotiated some great rates

to bring these acts here at a lower cost to the public than normally seen anywhere else in the country.”

Colne Town Council chief executive Colin Hill, added: “Over the last nine weeks, since the town council decided to step in to save the festival, we have been working hard with councillors, Jason, and his team to pull together all of the event and financial infrastructure to make this happen and are really excited that we are now ready to officially launch The Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival at Colne for 2017 ahead of schedule."

For full details and tickets, visit bluesfestival.co.uk

Line-up

Friday evening

Hippodrome Theatre

Tom Attah & The Bad Man Clan

Lachy Doley

Ian Siegal with his band

The Muni

The Revelator Band

Stevie Nimmo Trio

Joanne Shaw Taylor

The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session

Saturday daytime

Hippodrome Theatre

12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

2pm Matt Edwards Band

3pm Paddy Maguire Band ft. Jenna Hooson

4pm Miles Gilderdale

5pm-6pm Northsyde

6.10pm Closed for turnaround

The Muni

12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

2pm Yoka & The Sugarbeats

3pm Gerry Jablonski Band

4pm Crosscut Saw

5pm-6pm The Katie Bradley Band

6.10pm Closed for turnaround

Colne Little Theatre

Tom Attah's Acoustic Blues Showcase

1pm Mat Walklate & Paolo Fuschi

2pm Lucy Zirins & Company

3pm TNT – TJ Norton & Tom Attah

4pm Julian Burdock & Danny del Toro

5pm-6pm The Delta Ladies

6.10pm Closed for turnaround

Saturday evening

Hippodrome Theatre

TJ & The Suitcase Colne Special

Rob Tognoni

Aynsley Lister

The Muni

The Kaz Hawkins Band

Jo Harman

Janiva Magness

The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session

Sunday daytime

Hippodrome Theatre

12.30 Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

2pm Husky Tones

3pm Will Wilde Band

4pm Walrus (ft Rosco Levee)

5pm Dove & Boweevil

6.10pm Closed for turnaround

The Muni

12.30pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

1.15pm Finalist – Jessica Foxley Unsigned Project

2pm Elles Bailey

3pm Lisa Mills

4pm Alex McKown Band

5pm-6pm Wolfpack

Colne Little Theatre

Tom Attah's Acoustic

Blues Showcase

1pm Dale Storr

2pm Jess Gardham

3pm Jack Blackman

4pm The Hailbails

5pm-6pm Dave Arcari

Sunday evening

Hippodrome Theatre

Michael Messer's Mitra

Clay Shelburn

Lucky Peterson

The Muni

Gwyn Ashton

John Fairhurst

King King

The Paddy Maguire Midnight Jam Session