THE Isle of Man Bay Festival will again be known as the Manx Telecom Bay Festival next year.

The telecommunications company has confirmed it will be the title sponsor of the 2011 event which will take place from June 17 to 19.    

The news comes just weeks after the 2010 Manx Telecom Bay Festival was staged in Noble's Park, Douglas, which saw the likes of JLS, The Saturdays, Spandau Ballet, Calvin Harris, Boy George and many more perform.

Acts for the Sunday afternoon have already been announced and it will follow the X-Factor Meets Britain’s Got Talent format. See here for details.

Manx Telecom managing director Chris Hall said: "This year’s Manx Telecom Bay Festival was a fantastic event and offered something for music fans of all generations.

"We are sure that next year’s event will be even better and we’re looking forward to further announcements about the 2011 line-up in the months ahead."

Festival promoter Jonathan Irving said around 25,000 people attended this year's event and he was delighted that Manx Telecom had decided to continue as title sponsor.

"It's a massive vote of confidence in the festival that the major sponsor wants to continue with it," he said. "We are changing the Manx Telecom Bay Festival format slightly for next year, as it's important to keep things fresh.

"The Friday evening will be a pop night with Saturday evening being more rock orientated. On the Sunday night we are hoping to get a major indie band to appear.

"The idea behind this is to try and mix things up a bit to avoid having the same pattern every year."

For further details see www.bayfestival.im