The organisers of Bradford Festival today promised that local people will be at the heart of the event - even though international acts could steal the show.

Details of the "people's festival" will be revealed for the first time at a Council scrutiny committee on Tuesday.

It shows that hundreds of people will take part in the event running from June 7 to 16.

The massive event is expected to attract audiences of well over 150,000 from all over Britain, but organisers say it will keep its local flavour with hundreds of people from across the district still taking part.

The Festival is a main part of Bradford's bid submitted last month to become European Capital of Culture in 2008.

The regeneration and culture scrutiny committee ordered regular progress reports after the Festival contract was awarded for the first time to UZ Ltd in competition with other organisations, including the local company which previously ran it.

UZ has established a subsidiary company, Bradford International Festival Ltd, and the Council will give annual funding totalling £328,000. The company says it expects to create 200 jobs this year - six of them full time

The scrutiny committee examines, as part of its remit, whether value for money is being obtained through Council funding. A detailed report to councillors by Jane Glaister, director of Arts Heritage and Leisure, says key elements will include an eight-week community and school carnival and arts programme which will start on April 15 involving 11 schools across the district.

Open Community arts sessions are planned from a city centre workshop and activities will be free. The organisers also aim to have more than 500 people and performers from the community taking part in the colourful Lord Mayor's carnival.

The parade has been redesigned to make it accessible to participants as well as audiences as it goes through the pedestrianised city centre.

Members will be told a street art festival programme will take place in Lister Park, Centenary Square and other city centre sites. The expanded Mela programme will be presented at Peel Park on stages and arenas and will feature both contemporary and traditional artists. Other community highlights planned include:

l An open day for churches, temples, and Gurdwara;

l Open houses, art galleries and show cases with local artists presenting their work;

l Trails of the unexpected where local people would show visitors their secret trails of heritage or the unusual.

Officers will tell the committee the Council has built up a series of partnerships and relationships in the last six months and had meetings with 50 local and regional businesses, arts and community organisation, and other key organisations.

The report says festival directors feel Peel Park is the only safe site for the Mela and Lister Park has even less space than before its refurbishment took place.