City plays host to music festival

More than 50 bands and musicians will play at the festival

Scotland's biggest music festival for unsigned bands will be held in Dundee in June.

GoNorth will feature more than 50 groups from across the world, as well as workshops exploring the impact of the digital revolution.

The festival was first held in 2001 to provide acts from the north of Scotland with a platform to showcase their talent.

Full details of the programme will be announced in the coming months.

Lord Provost John Letford said: "This is another fantastic event for Dundee, and one which further enhances the city's growing reputation as a musical, cultural and artistic centre of excellence.

"It builds on the tremendous profile gained when the city hosted Radio 1's Big Weekend and on the success enjoyed by bands from the city such as The View."

Event organiser Shaun Arnold said: "I am really looking forward to Dundee hosting the goNorth this year.

You can feel not only the thrill of discovering new bands but also the strong sense of community Murray Chalmers EMI

"The city has some amazing talent, and when you combine this with some great venues and enthusiastic audiences, this should be a goNorth to be remembered."

The festival will be held across several city venues on 5/6 June.

Fringe events will be taking place from the first of the month.

The goNorth website will go live on Friday.

Musicians wanting to appear can register online and bands will be selected by a panel of industry experts early in March.

Murray Chalmers, of music company EMI and a native Dundonian, said: "It's great that the city's music scene is now so strong that Dundee can comfortably host goNorth.

"It's exciting coming back to Dundee and seeing a burgeoning music scene that has grown largely outwith the glare of the national media.

"You can feel not only the thrill of discovering new bands but also the strong sense of community that is making the Dundee music scene so focused and increasingly successful.

"Hopefully goNorth can help elevate the profile of the musicians and the city, a place which feels more and more like a brilliant diverse hub for the arts."