Each year in the sun-scorched city of Austin, Texas, there is an event called South By South West (SXSW). This event sees the whole city taken over by bands, record label executives, journalists and A&R men, all looking for the same thing — to discover the bands that are going to be the new success stories in the months to come.

Cafes, restaurants, bookshops, everything that can be used as a venue is used as a venue, with gigs spilling out into the streets if there fails to be a spot indoors. Though young by most festival’s standards, SXSW is a phenomenon and a festival that attracts bands from all over the world.

So successful is it, in fact, that there have been a string of organisers in the UK who have tried to replicate it.

There’s In The City, a long weekend each September in Manchester, where most of the city’s venues are taken over by record label showcases, The Great Escape, a three-dayer in Brighton, which is half a music industry conference and half a festival for all the up-and-coming bands in the UK, and London’s Camden Crawl, a two-day spectacular in Camden, where every venue and pub in sight hosts a gig.

Oxford got in on the act last year, too, with the launch of the OX4 festival.

Founded by Robin and Joe Bennett, the brothers behind the Truck and Wood festivals, OX4 has the aim of duplicating SXSW’s formula of creating an area with music pouring out of every door — but instead of showcasing bands hoping to score record deals, it would feature the best bands Oxford has to offer.

“We’ve always been admirers of South By South West” says Robin Bennett. “We liked the atmosphere it creates and we wanted to do our own version of that, but with the emphasis much more on local acts. We decided that although we’d book one or two bands from outside, like the Big Pink, we’d aim to keep the focus on Oxford bands.”

Which they did, with last year’s event going down as a huge success with a sell-out crowd and stand out shows from Cat Matador, Dial F For Frankenstein and Jonquil.

Obviously, Oxford doesn’t have a landmass the size of Austin to draw on, so things are a little smaller in scale for OX4.

It features ten venues up and down the Cowley Road, including the O2 Academy, East Oxford Community Centre, The Bullingdon and Baby Simple.

This year’s event takes place on Saturday, October 9, with bands playing from 4pm.

As well as this there will be workshops and film screenings throughout the day, with opportunities for ticket buyers to attend seminars about the music industry and get advice from professionals.

The bill for this year’s event already includes punkers Abe Vidoga, cult indie band Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin and headliners Everything Everything.

They will be joined by a host of local bands including the Winchell Riots, Fixers and the Bennetts’ own band, Dusty And The Dreaming Spires.

Landing Everything Everything as headliner is quite a coup for OX4 as the Manchester quartet have had one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the last year and are a terrific live band.

Last year’s inaugural OX4 was a great day out. It had everything — loads of great bands, a good atmosphere and, like all things the Bennetts do, it raised a lot of money for charity.

It also ended up selling out by mid afternoon, so don’t take any chances this year and get your tickets early. You’ll regret it otherwise.

lOX4 takes place on October 9. Tickets are priced at £15 for adults and £12 for under-18s. They are available online from wegottickets.com and in person from the O2 Academy, Scribbler, Oxfam in Headington and the Oxford Guitar Gallery. For more information, visit thisistruck.com