MUSICIANS have banded together to take on the might of Kirklees Council.

Local indie bands will go head to head with the council after they organised their own festival dubbed, Stick It To The Man.

The June 8 festival has been arranged by up and coming band Dirty Green Vinyl after the In The Hudd festival was called off.

In The Hudd was cancelled earlier this month with the organiser blaming Kirklees Council for moving its Party in the Park pop concert to the same weekend.

It had been set to showcase a wealth of local talent along with well known Yorkshire groups, including Ellen and the Escapades, Club Smith, Hawk Eyes, Skint and Demoralised and Sam Airey.

The two-day festival was to be hosted by Bar 1:22 and The Parish on June 8 and 9 but was cancelled two weeks ago amid fears it would lose out as punters flocked to the council’s free Greenhead Park-based shindig, celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

DGV bassist, Tom Bradshaw, said they had been so disappointed about the cancellation that they had decided to step in and sort it out themselves.

The teenagers, who are still at college, approached a number of local bars and have now organised a two-venue event on the same night that the council launches its three-days of music, including a 1970s style Abba and Bee Gees show on the Friday, a Proms concert on the Saturday and the pop concert ‘Party in the Park’ on the Sunday.

No pop groups have been named yet but the council has previously signed up big names including McFly, Eliza Doolittle, Roll Deep, Guillemots and The Script.

Tom said: “The opportunity In The Hudd festival gave to many local bands was brilliant with some big names set to headline so when we heard about its cancellation we were very frustrated.

“We didn’t want to sit back and let what was set to be a great festival be ruined, so we contacted some of the acts that were going to play In The Hudd and some other local acts and we are pretty pleased with the response we got, a bit of a punk revolution!

“We thought we would take the situation into our own hands and have been speaking collectively as a group of local bands/promoters to go against the system.

“We want to give Huddersfield real music on that weekend not some stereotypical pop outfit tunes.”

Bands signed up for the free festival include the Mexanines, Paper Plane, Dirty Green Vinyl, French Soul Party, St Somebody, We Four Ghosts, Marsicans, Crafters, Social Therapy, No Second Chances, One Stop Railway and Zippy Miracle.

Tom added: “It shows there’s enough people locally that will do it for free, you don’t need all that money from the council.

“All the bands were interested to help and everyone’s come together really well.

“It should be a good day. There’s definitely some good bands on like Marsicans, who are coming over from Leeds and have been played on BBC Radio 6 – they’re definitely ones to watch.”