A festival in a Cowley allotments site, which attracts up to 3,000 people has got the go-ahead for its 17th year.

The Elder Stubbs Festival, which will take place on Saturday, August 16 in the Rymers Lane allotments site, has been awarded £2,500 from Oxford City Council's Cowley area committee, meaning it now has enough cash to start planning in earnest.

It is organised by the Elder Stubbs Garden Group, an initiative run by mental health charity Restore in Manzil Way, and one of the festival's key aims is to raise awareness of mental health issues.

Elder Stubbs Garden Group team leader Jed Dale said: "As well as raising awareness of mental health issues, it is basically a community festival, so it is a chance for a wide range of people to get together and have a celebration."

The group had been refused money through the normal city-wide grants pot before getting the cash from the committee.

Mr Dale said: "We were quite worried there for a while and were wondering where we were going to get the money from.

"But we have now got enough to go forward."

The event costs just over £9,000 to put on, with the rest of the cash coming from private donations, the Elder Stubbs Charity and Restore.

It is held within the allotments site, with music, poetry, dance performances and a series of workshops among the entertainment on offer.

Last year, the line-up included music from Huw Lloyd-Langton, Assassins of Silence, Raggasaurus, Modern Clichés and Opaque.

Mr Dale said: "Hopefully we will have some diverse and eclectic things going on with representatives from the local community in the form of stalls, arts, music and dance and whatever they have to offer.

"We are hoping there will be a few surprises as well."

The festival also offers people the opportunity to look around the allotment site and see the work the Elder Stubbs Garden Group does - and buy freshly-grown produce cultivated only yards away.

Mr Dale said: "It is a very green site for somewhere that is in the middle of Cowley - it is like stepping into a little piece of countryside."

He said planning was still in the early stages, but hoped to get some of the youth groups based at Pegasus Theatre in East Oxford involved.