Sound City Ipswich will return in summer 2023 under a new name to provide a “huge boost” to Suffolk’s music and cultural scene.

Brighten The Corners festival will be a two-day multi-venue event that is set to take over five town centre venues with more than 70 artists performing.

Ipswich Star: Chubby & The Gang at St Stephen's Church Chubby & The Gang at St Stephen's Church (Image: Amanda Kingston)

The 2023 event is changing its form from an autumn to summer festival, and will take place on Friday and Saturday, June 9 and 10.

Early bird weekend tickets are going on sale from this Wednesday, November 30.

The first programme and partnership announcements will be made in December.

The festival will be independently run by the team at Brighten The Corners, a newly-formed brand which is the public-facing identity of Sounds East CIC.

CEO Joe Bailey said: “We are excited to bring our new festival brand to Ipswich for 2023.

“Sound City Ipswich 2019 and 2021 were really special events and it was amazing to see how the town embraced the multi-venue festival concept.

Ipswich Star: Joe Bailey Joe Bailey (Image: Newsquest)

“We are proud to be working as an independent festival further shining the spotlight on our fantastic town.

“Culturally Ipswich has so much potential and with our new venues, The Church (St Stephen’s Church) and The Baths (formally St Matthews Baths Hall) we will provide an inclusive and exciting program of emerging and established artists at this festival and all year round.

Ipswich Star: The Church The Church (Image: Rue Hackett)

“Changing the name to Brighten The Corners also means a lot to us, not only is it a fantastic album by the band Pavement but it sums up our aim to shine a spotlight on our underappreciated part of the country.

“This edition of the festival will also see a unique festival partnership with The University of Suffolk which will be the headline sponsor of the event.”

The University of Suffolk’s chief operating officer, Tim Greenacre, said: “The 2021 festival was a fantastic event which showed off Ipswich town centre at its vibrant best.

Ipswich Star: Tim Greenacre, chief operating officer and secretary to the board for the University of Suffolk Tim Greenacre, chief operating officer and secretary to the board for the University of Suffolk (Image: James Fletcher)

“We saw the enormous potential for the university to work with the team at Brighten The Corners and our Students’ Union to make the 2023 festival bigger and better than ever before.

“It should provide a huge boost to Suffolk’s music and cultural scene”.