THE 10th annual event of a Ribble Valley music festival has been hailed as the biggest to date by the organisers.

Beat-Herder has seen thousands of music lovers descend on a series of fields near Sawley since 2005 and the party is set to step up a gear to mark the milestone next weekend.

Two of the acts from the first Beat-Herder – Dreadzone and Eat Static – are back to join in the celebrations.

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Dancefloor groovers Basement Jaxx are Friday’s headliners while folk-rock heroes The Levellers are lined up for the Sunday slot along with legendary New York hip-hoppers Sugarhill Gang.

Set across a dozen stages, some buried in the Sawley woods, the Beat-Herder arts gurus have built an old Victorian street, (Quality Street) complete with functioning bookshops, sweetshops and a barbers to get that essential festival haircut.

New additions last year included a swimming pool in the woods, housed in a Scandinavian style wooden cabin, and The Ring, a huge earth mound with a Stonehenge style entrance.There’s even a Beat-Herder and District Working Men’s Club if you fancy a pint of Mild and a quiet sit down if the pace gets too hot. It was also recently crowned the winner of the Extra Festival Activity Award at the UK Festival prize Awards.

Co-organiser Nick Chambers said: “It’s such a fantastic festival and it’s wonderful when you hear about people who have met at a previous festival and then have got married and started a family.

“In the first few years we did not put an advert out and it spread through word of mouth.There are lots of people who have been coming since the start and it makes for a great atmosphere every year because so many people know each other.

“There is something here for everyone and I’m very proud of what we have achieved over the last nine years of running of the event.

“This year should again be amazing and I think that because it’s the 10th anniversary makes it even more special.”

Cllr Stuart Hirst, the leader of Ribble Valley Borough Council, said: “My son Rob performed at the festival a few years ago and it’s great that the borough hosts an event such as this with a national reach.”