GILFORD Park is set to host its first-ever football festival.

The festival will take place on Saturday, July 1, and Sunday, July 2 at Harraby's 3G pitch, with 86 teams and around 800 children ranging in ages from under-7s to under-14s, expected to be in attendance.

The weekend of football will be split into two sections, with Saturday featuring mixed teams and Sunday focusing on girls-only football, and teams from across Cumbria and the North East are set to be involved.

The event is also set to be sponsored by Jopson's Jewellers.

To keep the non-footballers entertained Gilford Park has organised some inflatables from Bouncelot Castle hire and food and drink will be available.

The event will also feature a boot bank sale, with donated boots from players of teams throughout the club being sold to generate funds and help children get a reasonably priced pair of new boots.

Darren Scaife is a volunteer coach within Gilford Park and has played a part in organising the festival alongside a number of volunteers which he sincerely thanked.

He said: "We are very excited to host our first football festival & hope to make it an annual event.

"It allows kids from all over the North of England the opportunity to play teams from different areas which allows for different challenges.

"It has taken quite some organising, many phone calls with many different people.

"It has been a real team effort & Barry who runs the Harraby 3G facilities has been superb in helping me figure out where everything will go over the weekend.

The whole event was my initial idea but I could not have done any of this without the help of our club secretary Jackie Hayhow & Darren Hopper.

"Without their guidance & knowledge of the grassroots picture within the city, there is no way I would have been able to get so many teams involved.

"That is the challenge within itself, getting enough people who are willing to volunteer their time each week to allow the kids to train & play.

"Thankfully at Gillford Park, we have got some truly selfless people who do this season after season."