THE centre of Taunton will be filled with music at the Sound of the Streets Festival on Saturday, September 25.

The town will come to life with four street bands at the mini festival of professional and local musicians offering people the chance to sing and dance.

Based at Castle Green with busking performances in the high street and around town, the free event is part of the Taunton Together programme to help the town recover from Covid-19 and is organised by local musician Tim Hill.

He said: "Street bands are one of the musical wonders of the world - the sound of celebration from Brazil to New Orleans, the Balkans to Delhi.

"We want to bring this vibrant and life-affirming music to the streets and spaces of the town."

Starting at noon with a fanfare in the town, the festival will go on until 5pm.

The centre piece will be a celebratory event called ‘A Big Song and Dance’, which will bring people together to sing and dance to tunes we all know such as ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ and ‘Lean on Me’.

Tim has arranged songs that he thinks speak of these times that everyone loves to sing.

Sound of the Streets will feature Tongues of Fire, a nine-piece band led by festival organiser Tim Hill who blow up a musical storm of brass, reeds and percussion.

They draw on traditions of funky marching bands, village, chapel and circus bands.

Their joyful noise is rooted in band leader Tim’s explorations of celebratory sound and the social role of outdoor music.

Also playing will be Taunton’s own Big Noise Street Band, a New Orleans-style band who play ‘funky jazz folk from the Somerset swamps’, and other local bands.

Finally the mini brass band The Instruments of Joy will be making an appearance, featuring the young drummer Jo Meikle, who grew up near Taunton, and leading jazz trumpeter Stuart Henderson, former first trumpet of the Scots Guards.