ARTISTIC youngsters are being invited to design the cover of a programme for a major festival to take place next year.

Plans are already well in hand for the Brancepeth Flower and Music Festival to be held next summer.

Organisers are staging the festival to celebrate the restoration of St Brandon's Church, in Brancepeth, near Durham City, which was gutted by fire in 1998.

Proceeds from the three-day festival, which starts on June 15, will be split between the restoration appeal and Macmillan Cancer Relief.

Among the highlights are expected to be an organ recital in the newly-restored church and a flower display by the Northumberland and Durham area of the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies, which promises to be the largest display of its kind staged in the area for almost a decade.

The festival committee has now organised an art competition, in which youngsters, aged from ten to 14, are being invited to design a cover for the festival.

Young artists are invited to come up with a design which reflects something of the history of the church, castle and village.

Entries must be on A4 paper and can be in any medium, drawing, painting or computer generated, and must include the entrant's name, age, address and phone number on the back.

The winner will be selected by celebrated Weardale artist Chris Mouncey and will take home a top prize of £50 in CD vouchers.

Entries should be sent to Brancepeth Flower and Music Festival, c/o Margaret Dobson, Brancepeth Post Office, Brancepeth Village, Durham City, DH7 8DF.

The deadline for entries to be received is noon on Saturday, August 27.

Organisers would like to stress that they cannot return entries and that copyright of the image will belong to the festivals committee.