YOUNG people are dusting off their skateboards ready for Carterton’s annual skating and music festival on Saturday.

The Carterton Extreme Wheels project is organised by regular users of The Dell Skate Park, in Upavon Way.

There will be skateboard, inline and BMX competitions and demos from 10am to noon and live bands from 2.30pm to 9.30pm.

Deputy town mayor Adrian Coomber said: “The Extreme Wheels Festival is now a fully self-sustainable community project – driven by young people and supported by the town council and local businesses.

“It is a pleasure to work with these talented skateboarders and BMXers to create what is a pretty impressive event, with bands from as far as Cheltenham, Gloucester, Exeter, Bristol, London and Manchester.”

Project manager Mandy Williams added: “The Extreme Wheels Festival is basically an all-day party at Carterton Skate Park — there will be skate competitions, food, a bungee run and live bands playing in the afternoon and into the evening.”

Entry to the event, now in its fifth year, is free and all ages are welcome. Last year more than 300 people turned out to watch as talented bikers and skaters battled it out to win prizes.

Lin Kennedy, communications manager at the festival, invited people from across West Oxfordshire and beyond to go along. She added: “The live music show will be professionally recorded by our engineer and we hope to produce a CD album, as we did in 2009.”