BBC Radio 1Xtra brings its beats to Manchester with a mix of live music and street athletics

• Nick Bright’s programme to be broadcast live from Albert Square, Manchester, on Saturday 22 August 2015 (1000 – 1300) to celebrate the opening of the World Athletics Championships in Beijing.
• Nick will welcome various guests from the world of athletics and music. Including live music acts RIO, DJ Stylus and MIC Lowry.
• The public can take part in Manchester City Council’s UK wide Street Athletics Championships.

The BBC will broadcast live coverage of the World Athletics Championships in Beijing and for the first time ever, BBC Radio 1Xtra will feature in the line-up as it brings a music and athletics special to the streets of Manchester.

The public can turn up to the event for free and see live music from Manchester rap artist RIO and Liverpool's MIC Lowry will perform an acoustic set. Another of Manchester's sons DJ Stylus will be in the mix playing all the big hip hop and RnB bangers.

Nick will also welcome guests from the world of athletics to celebrate the opening of the World Athletics Championships in Beijing, and Radio 5 live reporter and ex-sprinter Jeanette Kwayke will be on reporting duties.

Throughout the morning the public can register to compete in Street Athletics, a Manchester City Council initiative which young people can enter on the day.

Street Athletics, which was set up by Linford Christie and Manchester City Council in 2005, is a youth engagement programme for young people aged under 20. It targets youngsters who are not engaged in mainstream sports and who can benefit from the confidence and motivation that comes from taking part in a positive community sports event.

Each Street Athletics session consists of a series of races over 60m which results in a final for each age group, the top three boys and girls in each age group (U13/U15/U17/U20) are invited to attend the National Final (hosted in Albert Square in Manchester on Saturday 26 September).

The World Athletics Championships will be exclusively live on the BBC across tv, radio and online from Saturday 22 August.

Notes to Editors

• The event is free to attend and unticketed.
• To promote the event Nick Bright’s show has been featuring interviews with Team GB athletes including Katarina Johnson-Thompson, Dina Asher-Smith and Lynsey Sharp which can be listened to on Nick’s programme page: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s5l0t
• Street Athletics was set up by Linford Christie and Manchester City Council in 2005 and has previously received funding by Sport England and England Athletics. The project has engaged over 22,000 people under the age of 20 visiting 51 cities across the U.K. It has a number of success stories including Moesha Howard who first took part in the event in 2009 and has since gone on to represent GB & NI at the World Youth Championships in the sprint hurdles.
• On the same weekend (Saturday 22 August and Sunday 23 August) Media City UK will also host CBBC Sportarama. This exciting event is free to attend and will give children the chance to take part in athletics events and other activities designed to give them a flavour of the championships taking place in Beijing. The activities will begin at 10am and finish at 5pm both days and are unticketed.

Full info on CBBC Sportarama here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2015/sportarama

• Nick Bright is the partner of Liverpool heptathlete Katarina Johnson-Thompson, one of Team GB’s biggest hopes for a medal in Beijing. Katarina’s heptathlon campaign begins in the early hours of Saturday 22 August (UK time).

AM / AJ

Related BBC Links

• CBBC Sportarama
• Nick Bright's programme page
• BBC Radio 1 Xtra