LIVE music will feature at this year’s Dawlish Celebrates Carnival with the return of Live At The Lawn.

Now in its third year, the afternoon will see five of the area’s most exciting up and coming bands performing live.

After debuting in 2023, the event is now a firm date on the carnival calendar and takes place on Wednesday August 13 between 1pm and 5pm.

The free of enter live music event gives a platform to young musicians to perform in front of crowds or music lovers.

Carnival chairman Angie Weatherhead said: ‘We wanted to do more to reach a younger audience to Carnival and for younger people to see that Dawlish Carnival is an event for them and we’ve seen a growing following amongst the next generation across our social media and are looking forward to seeing them during Carnival week.’

The event is now very much part of the Dawlish Celebrates Carnival festivities with well-known Carnival favourite Chris Booth compering the afternoon against a background of sound provided by Phil Morgan of ProSounds who has been working with the Carnival for several years.

Organiser Robin Poole explained: ‘Our aim is to put the bands well and truly centre-stage for the afternoon, if we treat them well and help them sound their best then it will be a positive experience for them as much as the audience and everyone will have a positive story about the Carnival.’

While the event has attracted a new younger audience, Angie has been pleased to see older carnival goers, who are young at heart, also enjoying the afternoon.

She said: ‘We’ve been delighted to see that some of the young acts showcased at the event have gone on to perform at other events in Dawlish.’

The format of the event is now well established, with bands playing sets of equal duration across the afternoon and change-overs kept to a minimum so that audiences are kept entertained throughout.

This year’s line-up is made up of five local bands who are all experienced performers across the region.

Alt-rock band 3 Days of Wonder are returning from last year after being voted Devon’s best new act.

Joining them are the indie rock bands GRLBND and Obvious Reasons, both well established and very much in demand across the Devon music scene.

Dawlish is represented by grunge band Full Disclosure and folk-rock band The Other Woman travelling up from Plymouth complete the line up.

Robin said: ‘We want to do our bit to provide a live platform for younger bands to perform to a new audience and support with them with their musical ambitions.’