Stornoway, Danny and the Champions of the World and Little Fish will be among the bands headlining this year's Cowley Road Carnival.

It is now less than a month before the huge Oxford street party, which this year has a masquerade theme and will be staged on Sunday, July 6.

Last night, carnival organiser Ian Nolan said: "I am really excited.

"I don't think people are going away to festivals because they know there is so much great music and great entertainment to be had in Oxford.

"The carnival has really established its name for that so I think this could be the biggest yet."

Last year, about 30,000 people attended.

The event celebrates the cultural diversity of Oxford, particular East Oxford. Groups and organisations from different communities all get involved.

This year there will be four stages, in Temple Street, Jeune Street, James Street and Bartlemas Road, along with seven different sound systems pumping out everything from gospel and reggae to traditional African music.

More than 100 musicians, dancers and other artists applied to perform at the colourful event. Eighteen bands and 18 dance groups will be performing on stage with more groups taking part elsewhere.

Tristan and the Troubadours, Danny and the Champions of the World and Stornoway will be performing on the Bartlemas Road stage, with bands on the James Street stage including Rubberduck and Raggasaurus.

The Temple Street stage will be a dance area, and the Jeune Street stage will be an open mic area.

The amount of dance has increased dramatically, with offerings ranging from hip hop and street dance to ballet, Albanian folk dance as well as carnival favourites Sol Samba.

The carnival promises to be bigger and better than ever, with giant puppets - including a massive skeleton - forming part of the procession, which organisers hope will be twice as big as last year's with up to 2,000 people parading.

Apprentices from BMW Cowley, which sponsors the event, have spraypainted a Mini in the colours of the carnival. It will be on display on the day.

The carnival runs from 12-6pm, with an after-show party at The Regal, in Cowley Road, until midnight.

Everybody is asked to turn up wearing a mask.