ABOUT 100 groups and singers will be converging in the North-East next month for a free music festival.

Danish duo Junior Senior, whose single Move Your Feet is at number four in the UK charts have confirmed they will appear in the fourth Middlesbrough Music Live event.

Promoter Graham Ramsay, whose company Ten Feet Tall is booking the acts in conjunction with Middlesbrough Council, said: "Obviously, it's a great coup for us to have Junior Senior on the main stage and it shows how Middlesbrough Music Live is growing bigger and stronger every year.''

Negotiations are taking place to secure an even bigger name to actually headline the festival.

An estimated 50,000 people descended on Middlesbrough for last year's event when the big name on centre stage was Wheatus.

Festival spokesman Bob Fischer said: "There are a couple of bands in the frame and we are just waiting for them to confirm. But we will have the same sort of chart topping status as Wheatus.''

The festival will be spread over the town, with seven to eight stages set up across the town centre.

All age groups will be catered for, from the 1950s bee-bop sounds of King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, to rock and punk on stage in the town hall crypt.

Besides top chart bands and underground acts there will be one stage dedicated solely to the cream of local talent.

Mr Fischer said: "I just think it's fantastic for something like this to happen in Middlesbrough; probably one of the biggest festivals of this type in the country. People don't have to buy tickets, but just turn up.''