A town is celebrating the best of its homegrown talent with a weekend music festival.

The Medway Music Festival returns, for the first time since the pandemic, to Rochester’s Royal Function Rooms and the Billabong Club.

The festival is a community-led event which showcases musicians and artists from the county, with particular focus on the Medway towns and nearby areas, such as Maidstone.

The line-up also supports independent record labels Damaged Good, based in East London since the 1980s, and Spinout Nuggets, who regularly host live events in the Kent area.

The two-day festival boasts a busy programme of live music at the two venues on Friday, October 7 and Saturday, October 8.

The event kicks off on Friday at 7:30pm with rock trio The Shadracks and a headline set from acclaimed musician, poet and artist Billy Childish in Wild Billy Childish and CTMF - all of whom are from or based in Medway.

The following day, the music starts at 2pm and features a packed line-up featuring local bands such as Queen Phosphene from Maidstone, These Guilty Men from Rochester, Dirty Modal Souls from Chatham and Ode to Sleep from Thanet.

Also set to appear are The Chesterfields, the Senior Service, the Pastel Waves, The Veras, Upcdownc, Estelle Mey, Hunting Holly, Gianni and the Jury, Hobo and the Hippies, Disco Drug Store, Coor Brow-Obles and Vaughan Batchelor.

Tickets cost £22 for Friday and £15 for Saturday. You can book tickets for Friday here and for Saturday here.

This isn’t the only celebration of live arts taking place in Medway in the coming weeks.

BUP Festival, the first-ever British Sign Language-dedicated free arts festival to come to Medway, takes place on Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2 at Sun Pier House in Chatham.

The BSL festival hopes to establish accessibility for all when it comes to the arts, with a specialised programme of storytelling, art activities, film and performance, all curated to help deaf children improve their literary and language development. You can book tickets here.

The following weekend, Icon Theatre, in collaboration with Creative Estuary, Medway Council and Arts Council England, are bringing their immersive new production to the St. George Hotel in Chatham.

From Wednesday, October 5 to Saturday, October 8, the Ballad of St John’s Car Park celebrates the true stories of Medway’s community activism over the years, performed by a cast of more than 100 performers. You can book tickets here.