A music festival showcasing the talents of Oxford's up-and-coming bands takes place in six venues around the city on May 14.

Nineteen bands will perform in the Oxford Punt 2003, from 6.15pm.

Organiser Ronan Munro, who edits Oxford's music paper Nightshift, said the event helped take bands on to greater things and introduced fans to new music.

He said: "Just about any band from Oxford that has gone on to achieve any level of success has played at the Punt early in their career."

Bands will play at Borders bookshop in Magdalen Street, Jongleurs in Hythe Bridge Street, The Wheatsheaf in High Street, Kiss Bar and The Jam Factory in Park End Street, and The Cellar in Cornmarket Street.

The event is sponsored by Borders, which is hosting two bands and talks by two authors involved with Britpop in the mid-1990s.

Louise Wener, former singer of Sleeper, has written a novel called Goodnight Steve McQueen, and former Q and NME journalist John Harris has written The Last Party, about Britpop and New Labour.