Gospel music, salsa dancing and juggling will help Oxford residents celebrate their estate after a major facelift.

Plans for the third annual Barton Bash are hotting up as residents look forward to celebrating their estate's recently-refurbished shopping area and new police office.

Organisers hope this year's party will be the biggest and best yet and are expecting more than 1,000 people to flock through the doors of the estate's neighbourhood centre in Underhill Circus.

Among the local groups performing at the event next month will be urban dance group Messy Jam, Barton Sings!, the Redeemed Church Gospel Choir, the Army Cadets Marching Band and the Strawberry Fayre Majorettes.

Youngsters can also get their faces painted, hair braided, nails polished and get temporary henna tattoos. Sue Holden, secretary of Barton Community Association, said the event was launched three years ago to replace the estate's traditional annual carnival which had died out a few years before.

Mrs Holden said: "The first year we probably had about 400 people. We virtually doubled the numbers last year, so obviously we are hoping to go through the 1,000 barrier this year."

The event will also include an art corner where youngsters can draw and colour, a music workshop and hands-on experiments led by staff from Oxford Science.

A children's entertainer will perform in the newly-refurbished Underhill Circus amphitheatre including stilt-walking, juggling, magic tricks and balloon-making.

Youngsters can also enjoy giant inflatables including a bouncy castle, ball pond, bungee run and giant slide, followed by a children's tea party at 4pm. Food will be provided by the estate's new community cafe Eatwells, which is due to open on Monday, June 2.

This year's bash will be the first since the completion of the £250,00 project to transform Underhill Circus in March and the opening of the new police base on the estate.

Mrs Holden said: "It was like a building site over there last year. The kids will now have so much space. It has all come together now around that area.

"It doesn't matter how old or young you are, how mobile or immobile, it doesn't matter what your background or ethnicity is, there is something for everybody.

"It is total social cohesion at its very best. The whole idea is to bring everyone together for a good, fun afternoon.

"Everyone is welcome from far and wide. We don't make it a stipulation that you have to be a resident of Barton."

Mrs Holden said the event was not being scaled down, as some residents feared, after news in March that Barton Community Development Project had run out of cash.

This year's Barton Bash will be on Saturday, June 14, from 12pm to 5pm. Anyone wishing to volunteer at the event should contact Mrs Holden through the neighbourhood centre.