Festival celebrates 10 years

Sudanese and Egyptian musicians Rango are on a debut tour of the UK

It started out with a few musicians playing world music in Whitby and now it's becoming one of the leading cultural events in the north.

To match its size, Musicport moved to Bridlington Spa last year and has become a permanent annual attraction in the region.

This year the festival is celebrating its 10th anniversary, organiser Jim McLaughlin said this is a time to reflect on the past achievements and look to building its future at the Spa:

"I just think it's a very important event for the north of England and it's a great thing for the town itself. It does bring a lot of visitors.

"People were concerned when we moved from Whitby to Bridlington last year but actually it worked so well.

"I think the fact that we're bringing major names [in world music] up to the north of England and the Yorkshire coast, is important for the area and for the whole profile of the region."

"Our next 10-year plan is to integrate more into the community, to do more events throughout the year that actually involve local musicians and local young people in particular," added Mr McLaughlin.

Music from every corner of the globe will be represented including Chile, Tibet, Syria, and the Ukraine.

Artists on the bill include Nitin Sawhney, Misty in Roots and Mad Professor alongside The African Jazz All-Stars, Chumbawamba, former Inspiral Carpets frontman Tom Hingley and BBC Radio 3 World Music Award winners Justin Adams & Juldeh Camara.

Local musicians The Hut People and Robert Maseko play the festival

"We're doing a bit of a retrospective within the festival and inviting back some of the acts that we've really loved over the 10 years," said Jim.

"Plus, we've also got some really interesting acts who've not played in the UK before like Rango from Sudan and Egypt. So it's a mixture of looking back and looking forwards as well."