The 17th festival begins tonight with the prospect of three days when rucksacks give way to riffs at more than 60 gigs in pubs, clubs and halls including the main venue, the Mechanics.

A wide-ranging programme embraces the splendidly archaic Temperance Seven, the freshly minted strains of Empirical, the dashing Dave O'Higgins, the soulful Snake Davis and the peerless Claire Martin. Not forgetting tomorrow's street march by Dave Brennan's Jubilee Parade Band which has become an institution.

For those to whom the whereabouts of Marsden are a mystery, you can get there by rail or using the A62 out of Huddersfield before taking the plunge into the village that for three days, once a year, is enveloped by jazz.

Elsewhere in a crowded week, Polar Bear open the autumn season at The Shed in Hovingham tomorrow night while Thursday offers
a choice between the extraordinary vocal pyrotechnics of Cleveland Watkiss at the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, and the engaging versatility of trombonist Dennis Rollins' Badbone and Co at The Venue at Leeds College of Music.