UPTON Blues Festival has up to £25,000 to give away to local, music education or blues charities.

Festival trustees have now set up a formal process for giving out funds each year to help organisations and individuals to achieve their dreams and goals.

This follows changes to the festival's charitable objects, which were recently approved by the Charities Commission.

The festival can now fund programmes and projects that fall into one of three categories:

*Any good works within 10 miles of Upton;

*Music education projects throughout the Midlands; and

*Projects throughout the UK which develop and improve the understanding of blues music and increase its performance, awareness and learning.

Requests for funding must be for over £250 and can be for one-off or multi-year funding, but they must be made before January 30 using the official form.

Oliver Carpenter, one of the festival’s trustees, said: "The recent change to the charity’s objects has been fundamental to us being able to open up the giving process to applications.

“It has really opened up the possibilities for the charity. To date we have run a successful annual schools music education programme and made a substantial donation to refurbish a multi-use games area in Upton, but now we can look more broadly to support the local, music education and blues communities.”

The Upton Blues Festival attracts well over 20,000 music lovers each year. The campsite alone nearly trebles the town’s population of 2,900, and the festival brings in well over £1m to the town’s businesses over the weekend.

The festival is completely free to attend and is totally self-funding. Upton Blues Festival is the UK Blues Awards Festival of the Year.

The 2019 Festival will be held on July 18-21. To find out more, visit uptonbluesfestival.com.

For more information and to apply for funding, visit uptonbluescharity.com.