A PUNK music festival will be rocking the Saracen’s Head pub on Saturday to raise money for charity.

The Wilderspool Causeway venue will welcome Cheshire band, The Graves, as well as many other punk and rock bands who decided to run the event to support The Alzheimer’s Society.

And The Graves guitarist Bellington St John-Smythe hopes to see the venue packed for a great day of music and fundraising.

“Our band and the other bands who have signed up to do the festival wanted to do something to raise money for charity,” he said.

“We chose The Alzheimer’s Society as it is a local charity that does great work in the community and we wanted to support it in some way.

“Alzheimer’s is a horrible illness, and members from all of the bands have had some experience with it through family members or people close to them.”

As well as The Graves, bands including Tick no Tock, Quantum Beats and 12heads will be taking to the stage playing a variety of different styles.

“Expect the festival to be very loud with plenty of different music tastes catered for,” St John-Smythe said.

“The Graves are a 1977 style punk band, but there will be other genres as well including space rock and psychedelic punk.

“We’ve organised quite a diverse line up with plenty of music being played so hopefully it should be a great event.”

No tickets are required for the festival and people can just turn up on the day, however the bands ask that a donation be made to the society and music fans get involved in the other events being run.

“All the money we raise will go straight to The Alzheimer Society, and we will have collection buckets on the stage, a bouncy castle, raffles and football cards,” he added.

“There are some great prizes to be won including two tickets to a Warrington Wolves game so it’s definitely worth having a go.

“We want to raise as much money as we possibly can for this local charity.

“The illness itself doesn’t get a lot of publicity and the attention it deserves, which is why we wanted to put on the festival.”

Saturday’s event will also be one of the few opportunities to watch The Graves in action, with the band only playing in public a handful of times each year.

“We’re really looking forward to playing on Saturday as this will be our first gig of the year,” said St John-Smythe.

“We only play about three times a year, but we want to keep our hand in as Warrington’s oldest punk band.

“Our first gig was in 1985 after forming in 1983 and we got back together with the original drummer two years ago to celebrate my fiftieth birthday.”

The Punk festival will start at 3pm this Saturday at the Saracen’s Head pub on Wilderspool Causeway.