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Sound City Ipswich expects thousands at multi-venue festival

BBC Red Wine Talk on stage at Sound City Ipswich.BBC
About 60 artists, including Red Wine Talk, are due to play the two-day event

More than 3,000 ticket-holders are due to descend on a town centre to further celebrate the return of live music.

Sound City Ipswich had to be cancelled last year because of the pandemic, but about 60 artists are due to perform at five venues on Friday and Saturday.

US songwriter BC Camplight, the Mercury Award-nominated Porridge Radio and rapper TrueMendous are on the line-up.

Venues include the newly reopened Baths on Civic Drive, which used to host the likes of Led Zeppelin.

BC Camplight
US multi-instrumentalist BC Camplight is one of the headline acts at the Ipswich Corn Exchange on Friday evening

Marcus Neal, co-director of the festival, said: "It's a real thrill to use The Baths as a venue."

The festival debuted as a one-day event in the town in 2019.

The festival's largest venue is the 900-capacity Corn Exchange, while the BBC Introducing in Suffolk stage on the Cornhill is the only outdoor one and it focuses on Suffolk-based bands and solo artists.

Friday's entertainment was hit by downpours in the afternoon with a mixture of sun and rain due until Saturday evening.

The festival organisers thousands more music fans and shoppers were expected to take in the outdoor town plaza stage, which is free to all.

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