A cash windfall of more than £400,000 has been awarded to ensure Millennium celebrations go off with a bang.

The cash for Oxfordshire comes from the £100m Millennium Festival Fund, which is helping to stage the largest programme of celebrations ever mounted in the UK.

Oxfordshire 2000 has been awarded £150,000 for its Through the Looking Glass project - a year-long series of events to mark the turn of the century.

Thame in 2000 has scooped £30,000 which will be used to expand the Thame festival, while an award of £25,000 has been given to Cherwell District Council for its Timeline to the Future project.

The Oxford Playhouse will get £25,000 to bring together a range of top artists and Oxfordshire Youth Arts Partnership is receiving £25,000 to provide music residencies for young musicians.

A further £25,000 is going to the Coral Arts project to create a performance event in a beech wood in the county and Oxfordshire Local History Association is to get £60,000 to create a heritage pack for parishes.

Also in the money are Oxfordshire County Museum, the Wychwood Project, arts group Ithaca - Recreating Ourselves, ecology group The Ten Acre Trust and West Oxfordshire District Council's Dynamix Music Festival.

There could be more grants awarded in the county as the Help the Aged Millennium Awards totalling more than £1m are still on offer.

Organisations are asked to apply for the grants before March 31, on 0171 490 4751.

Story date: Monday 22 February

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