AFTER months of negotiations, council bosses have agreed to allow organisers to hold the first free music festival in Colchester for almost ten years.

Organisers are hoping the free music and arts festival, to be held on September 18, will be a landmark event in the town and attract some of the biggest local music acts around.

A campaign for the festival began in December on social networking site, Facebook.

More than 1,570 people have signed up to support the campaign, set up by Keep Colchester Cool front man, Ben Howard.

Now, Keep Colchester Cool, a non-profit group that promotes live music, has teamed up with Slack Space Colchester, a group that fills empty shop spaces with arts events.

The festival will be called Colchester! and be entirely reliant on financial and practical support from the community.

Mr Howard said: “This is a community event that will be organised by the community for the community.

“How big and how good it is will all depend on the donations and support we receive from individuals, organisations and businesses.”

He added: “We have so much talent in this town, it is about time we had a festival, like Brightlingsea and Wivenhoe, so we can really put Colchester on the map.”

The festival team has now launched a four-month fundraising drive, at the end of which, it hopes to raise between £7,000 and £10,000 for the event.

The event will take place in Lower and Upper Castle Park from 11am until 7pm.

There will be a main stage, an acoustic area on the park’s bandstand as well as tents with various performers, a children’s area and refreshments.

A public meeting will be held at the Space, the new Slack Space venue, in Queen Street, Colchester, at 8pm, on Tuesday, April 27.

Anyone who wants to be involved in the festival, whether they are performers or volunteers, are asked to attend the meeting or e-mail info@ colchesterfreefestival.com.

A website is also being launched on Friday; visit www.colchesterfreefestival.com