Cumbria to Texas: Hardwicke Circus to play world-famous festival
Video report by Lauren Ostridge.
One of Carlisle's most recognised bands is looking forward to an exciting 2020, after being selected to play at a world-famous music festival in the US.
Hardwicke Circus have already shared a stage with music legends Bob Dylan and Neil Young in front of 60,000 people.
This year, the band will be the first from Cumbria to travel to Austin, Texas, to perform at the South by Southwest Festival. Only a handful of bands are selected to play their music, which helped the likes of Sam Fender and Lewis Capaldi rise to fame.
The band hope the gig will help them be recognised by a record label in the states. Lead singer, Jonny Foster, said: "South by South West is a huge world renowned music showcase festival for up and coming bands around the world.
"It's our chance to make appointments with the US record industry to play them our songs, to play them our music and to show them what we're really made of. Only a handful of English bands get invited every year. So we're really looking forward to getting out there. "
The Carlisle band needs to raise around £30,000 for plane tickets, visas and accommodation, and have set up a local raffle to raise the funds.
"We're doing this off our own back. A lot of the bands out there have record companies on their side funding them, but we don't have that financial support so we're looking to our Cumbrian folks to help us get there", said Jonny.
Bass guitarist Ben Wilde said: "You're starting to offered these amazing opportunities so it's just exciting and it's vindication for the last few years of the hard work we've put in."
All the details about the raffle is on Hardwicke Circus' website.