IT'S time to party as the hotly anticipated Common People festival kicks off in Southampton today.

Some 35,000 revellers are expected to attend the event at Southampton Common over the next two days.

Common People was first held in the city last year and proved a big success, bringing together an array of top musical talent and boosting the local economy by around £1 million.

This year looks set to follow suit with a music line-up that includes Southampton’s very own Craig David as well as Duran Duran, Katy B, Primal Scream and Public Enemy.

The Uncommon Stage will this year be hosted by the Joiners, an iconic Southampton venue for live music, and will see bands including Lonely the Brave and the Wytches performing.

And continuing the theme of promoting Southampton venues, the Bug Bar stage will be hosted by the nightclub Junk tonight.

The main Common Stage will be opened by hotly tipped Southampton four-piece Wild Front today at 11am.

There will be 70 music acts performing across the weekend but Common People is not just about the music.

Arts & Crafts and sideshows will include Bigtopmania Circus Skills, The People Front Room, Spinney Hollow, a Batala Band (Brazilian drummers) a knitting tent and the world’s biggest bouncy castle!

In addition to 26 food concessions, catering for every taste, there will be six bars including two specialist cocktail bars (The Jam Jar Bar/Bollywood Cocktail Bus) a real ale bar (The Travelling Barn) and a VIP Bar (The Nook)

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Looking forward to the event, organiser Rob Da Bank said: "Here we are again for our second Common People in Southampton!

"The site looks amazing and the sun is shining, so we can’t wait to welcome you all for a weekend of brilliant music from Duran Duran, Craig David, Primal Scream, Public Enemy, Gaz Coombes and loads more. "And of course there will be the world’s biggest bouncy castle and plenty of incredible fun and games, too. "

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A list of road closures has been announced throughout the weekend. Three of the main roads surrounding Southampton Common will be closed today and tomorrow - Hill Lane, Cemetery Road and Northlands Road, but Rob said he is confident everything should run smoothly.

Organisers are asking people to come by public transport if possible or to use the town centre car parks as there is no car park at the festival.

Bluestar bus service are running shuttle busses to and from the event all weekend while city centre shuttle buses will run from 9.45am through to midnight.

Festival goers will have to dress for all weathers as according to the forecast there is likely to be a mixed bag with showers along with sunny spells predicted for today, with a cloudy day forecasted for Sunday.

To get your last minute tickets go to southampton.commonpeople.net

Don't forget to pick up your souvenir copy of the Daily Echo on Monday!