THE long-term future of a popular free music festival looks set to be secured tonight.

The Stanley Blues Festival nearly folded this year, when Derwentside District Council withdrew funding and administrative support. But the council backtracked after public outcry.

The event is organised by Consett-based music co-operative Northern Recording.

A report before the council's ruling executive is recommending that it stops underwriting the festival on a year-to-year basis.

Instead, it will give Northern Recording a one-off payment of about £85,000. This will make the group independent and place it on a sound financial footing, which means it can expect to attract funding from outside bodies.

Council leader Alex Watson said: "This guarantees the future of a key event for Stanley and Derwentside.

"Not only will it be a better blues festival, but it won't be costing the tax payer in the long term."

The council initially cut its festivals budget this year as it tried to make £1m in savings, in order to keep an election promise of a 2.5 per cent council tax rise.

Coun Watson said: "It has not been an ideal situation for Northern Recording, as they have had to wait until we set the budget each year before they could do anything.

"Also, we cannot attract outside funding in the same way as an independent charitable organisation."

The festival has been running for 11 years, and last year attracted more than 12,000 people. It brings about £500,000 a year into the local economy.

The district council's executive will look at the proposals at a meeting in Consett Civic Centre today at 4.30pm.