DANCE and music play important roles in this year’s Bradford Festival.

Cutting-edge outdoor performances are promised in and around Centenary Square and City Park.

Among the headline music performers will be local folk band The Demon Barbers, pioneering Italian fusion band Sweet Life Society and popular local Americana band Waiting for Wednesday.

The Demon Barbers return to Bradford Festival with a new repertoire, extra band members and a modern twist to their multi-award winning roadshow.

The Demon Barbers XL will brings some of the UK’s most exciting young clog, sword, hip hop and break dancers onto the main stage with material from their latest album Disco At The Tavern.

Italian producers, Gabriele Concas and Matteo Marini, alias Sweet Life Society, will perform live accompanied by an eclectic ensemble of contrabass and wind instruments backed by the two exceptional voices.

Concas and Marini combine unique vintage melodies and Caribbean sounds with American hip-hop beats and powerful UK bass in an elegant, refined and surprising mix, where rich brass and guitar blend perfectly with drum machines and samplers.

Feisty female duo, Waiting For Wednesday will be backed by a full band to play their soulful Americana songs with more rock passion and country twang in support of their recent EP, Routes.

Over 20 music acts covering rock, pop and indie, rock n’ roll, folk, Gypsy, bhangra, country and western, soul, funk, brass, jazz, Panjabi, Turkish and Latin music will perform at this year’s festival.

Traditional folk band, Anjaana, will play authentic Bhangra, rustic village music, rhythmic dance songs, folk tales and ballads using Panjabi folk instruments.

The Krape Twins will create music, mayhem and merriment on the move, with their battery-powered jazz, Irish, rock n’ roll, to 50s, 60s and 70s pop.

Kapow will use dance, theatre and music present music in Adrift which tells the story of two women lost at sea aboard a precarious wooden raft.

Four performers will stage an exciting blend of dance, acrobatics and aerial work inside a large cage in Captive by celebrated Leamington Spa-based dance company, Motionhouse.

Roots by Highly Sprung is a bold and beautiful new dance piece exploring identity and belonging, set entirely in a six-metre tree-like structure.

Bradford Festival, organised by Bradford Council, runswill offer street theatre, music, dance, workshops and activities from July 13 to 15. Entry is free.

Visit bradfordfestival.org.uk for further information.