The village of Marsden prepares to welcome the North’s biggest jazz festival this week.

Around 600 musicians – and 8,000 visitors – are expected to attend Marsden Jazz Festival, which runs from Friday to Sunday.

The festival promises everything from traditional to avant-garde jazz in a feast of free and ticketed professional and community performances.

Headlining the festival on October 10 is Bob Kerr’s Whoopie Band, where trad jazz meets Monty Python-like surrealist antics.

The Sugar Sisters top the bill on October 11, with a trio of close harmony female vocals that has caught the attention of legendary broadcaster Terry Wogan and earned them a spot as the house band on BBC Children in Need.

And superstar trombonist Dennis Rollins and Doncaster Jazz Orchestra close the festival with a slice of big band jazz from South Yorkshire.

Two world premieres of new music commissioned by Marsden Jazz Festival take place over the weekend – Simon Fell’s ‘Revolutionary Traditional (The Ragging of Time)’, which is being recorded for BBC Radio 3’s Jazz On 3, and ‘I Have A Duck Who Can Roar’, an illustrated musical story for jazz septet, written and composed by Chris Bridges and illustrated by Ann Gilligan.

Other headline artists include Ben Crosland’s Threeway with guest, rising star vibraphonist Lewis Wright; virtuoso trio Troyka, which includes Mercury Prize-nominated organist Kit Downes; Partisans, playing richly lyrical and strongly melodic music from their new album ‘Swamp’; 11-piece barrio funk and Latin soul band Bugalu Foundation; and rich, progressive arrangements from the Joshua Cavanagh-Brierley Nonet.

The festival’s pub and club programme includes over 30 free gigs with bands playing traditional New Orleans jazz, jive and swing, gypsy jazz, fusion, electronic, soul, blues, folk-jazz and funk.

Marsden Jazz Festival also features up-and-coming and cutting-edge artists plus community events including a street parade.

Visit www.marsdenjazzfestival.com for more information.