A WEEKEND of live music funded by the community may be around the corner for Malmesbury thanks to a group of entrepreneurial residents.

A team of volunteers have been working to get The Boondocks Festival off the ground after the success of the popular Sherston Fest, which won't take place next year.

Their dream is for a  weekend of music with rock, acoustic and even comedy sets taking to the stage to entertain the people of Malmesbury and beyond.

So far the weekend of July 17 and 18 next year has been earmarked for the event, which is named Boondocks as a nod to Malmesbury being a rural area and would take place on a 15-acre site just 20 minutes walk from the centre of Malmesbury.

A spokesman said: "The Boondocks Festival organising team are all locals, or have a personal connection with Malmesbury.

"Over the last three years we have been involved in running Sherston Fest, Malmesbury Acoustic Sessions, Fieldview Festival, WOMAD, Malmesbury Rocks and Malmesbury Comedy Nights as well as being involved in lots of other local creative and production projects."

The organisers have set up a Kickstarter account, which allows people who would like to attend, if the event goes ahead, to pledge money for tickets now.

They can promise anything from £30 for a general admission ticket to £250 for a VIP type package, and the organisers said that people will only be charged if they overall total of £30,000 in reached., with more than £5,000 pledged already.

Wiltshire Council is working with the organisers on the idea, while businesses can sponsor the event, which will include spots on all festival promotional material and groups of 10 tickets with weekend camping included.

So far 75 people have pre-booked tickets with seven of the 20 VIP passes already snapped up by those eager to get the full Boondocks experience.

Neil Muttock, one of the festival’s organisers, said: “I think there’s a demand for it and we’re just doing the Kickstarter to find out if the support is there.

"We thought next year would be a good chance to do something a bit bigger, a bit better and something for Malmesbury.

“We’ve got a site, we’ve got a date and now we just need to be sure that Malmesbury is behind us so we can get it to happen.”

The Kickstarter campaign finishes on Sunday, November 30.

Anyone keen for the festival to take place is being asked to pledge their support via the website kickstarter.com/projects/boondocks/the-boondocks-festival-malmesbury