A MAJOR festival drawing thousands of music lovers and hundreds of bands from Wales and around the world to Wrexham is up and running.

The ninth FOCUS Wales festival got underway on Thursday night and is taking place at multiple venues around the town, ending tonight.

It includes more than 200 live performances at venues throughout the town and was formed to promote Welsh talent, supplemented by the best new acts from across the globe.

Glyndwr University and Tŷ Pawb are among the venues hosting stages for live music, with the latter hosting a Bands FC art exhibition and serving as the main box office HQ and collection site for festival passes.

The food court, bar, shops and galleries will be open for business throughout the festival.

Today, from 10.30am to 5.30pm, there is free live music, no festival pass required, on the Shepherd's Hut stage at the end of Tŷ Pawb's food court.

Bands FC's first ever exhibition in Wales during FOCUS Wales is at Gallery Two in Tŷ Pawb. Bands FC features bands as football teams, football teams as bands.

Visit the FOCUS Wales website for more information on festival passes and the full line-up of performers for the evening events.

There's a full timetable of interactive events taking place in Tŷ Pawb's performance space each day of the festival.