ORGANISERS of an international rock festival have renamed a performance stage after a young Rossendale woman murdered two years ago.

Plans to name the third stage in this year’s Bloodstock mu-sic festival “The Sophie Lancaster Stage” have been announced.

Bloodstock, now an established heavy metal event which sees around 9,000 fans each year, will spear-head an anti-violence campaign this August.

Bloodstock organ-iser Paul Gregory said: "We felt this would be a fitting tribute to a young girl who was brutally attacked along with her boyfriend in 2007 while walking thro-ugh her local park.

“It is our hope that renaming the stage will help to keep Sophie's memory alive and raise awareness to our society that this kind of brutal beha-viour will not be tolerated. Sophie and her boyfriend were singled out not for anything they had said or done, but because they looked and dressed differe-ntly.”

Sophie, 20, was murdered in Stubby-lee Park, Bacup, after being kicked and stamped in the head as she tried to protect her boyfriend, during a gang attack in August 2007.

Sophie’s family, who set up the Sophie Lancaster Foundation which raises aware-ness of prejuduce faced by people in alternative subcult-cures, will be supp-orting the music event this summer.

Catton Hall in Walton-On-Trent, Derbyshire will host the festival on August 14, 15 and 16.