LET'S face it, the fight for the summer's most anticipated festival is won - no one tries to compete against the pull of Glastonbury these days.

But the fight for the country's best free festival still rages. This weekend, Manchester's New Islington Festival, AKA the Urban Folk Festival, throws its hat in the ring and it promises to be the greatest and, quite possibly, the weirdest end to the summer that Manchester has ever seen.

Billed as 'Urban Folk for urban folk' and previously praised for its dynamic programme of music, literature, art, film, the "boutique" festival all starts relatively normally with a host of the city's burgeoning musical talent, including Carlis Star, the Answering Machine, This is Seb Clarke and The Beep Seals, on the Tree-Percussion stage.

DJs deliver a day of battering grooves on the Unity stage, with Phat Pat, DJ Stylus, Northern Komfort and Rhythm and Grime among the headliners, while newbies Cohesion, Kathryn Edwards and S.R. Gents get their chance on the Un-staged stage.

Literature features large in the billing, with no fewer than 20 writers lined up , including Lemn Sissay, Tony Walsh, Ben Mellow, Paul Neads and Segun Lee French.

Oral tales

Local film makers will premiere their latest work, while Taffy Thomas delivers a selection of his 300 or so oral tales in the Story Telling Garden and Spoken Image brings its famous Independent Book Market back for the second year.

And then, it all gets a bit... odd. Take Toomanyancoatsdjs spinning their way into the small hours on the local bandstand, or the Nu-Rave Sheep pen where graffiti artists showcase their spray can skills on live sheep while listening to... yes, you guessed it, nu-rave.

If that all sounds a bit lairy, try dropping in for a spot of cake with Lucy and the Caterpillar and stopping off for a spot of tea with DJ and producer (and infamous tea addict) Mr Scruff. There's even a chance to go messing around on the river - hire a pedalo and take it down Manchester's newest canals to the 'secret island' - and there's lots for the kiddies too, including craft workshops and treasure hunts.

For the big kiddies, there's real ale, welly wangling, oh, and rubber duck racing.

We told you it was weird...

New Islington Festival takes place on Old Mill Street, Ancoats, Saturday, September 1 between 2-8pm. Free. Visit newislington.co.uk.