A BURY music venue will celebrate a grand reopening with 21 days of performances.

The Met is welcoming a a huge line-up of special shows and guests when it opens its doors at the end of this year.

It has undergone a £4.6 million transformation following a major funding boost to renovate the historic building.

A £4.6 million transformation of The Met is set to begin in a matter of weeks after a major fundraising boost for the venue.

Arts Council England made a £3.1 million investment to help renovate the historic building, which has been supplemented by contributions from Bury Council and other benefactors.

Bury Metropolitan Arts Association (BMAA), the charity that runs The Met, spent four years securing funds for the redevelopment project.

Refurbishment work designed to increase the venue's capacity and attract more national talent to perform in Bury began in March and will be unveiled on October 31 in a 21 day festival of live music, theatre, comedy and special guests

Artistic Director David Agnew said the Met was now in a position to grow as an organisation, to bring more live music and performances to Bury and to create a space for amazing things to happen.

He added: “We plan to really show off our newly refurbished building and theatre space with a fantastic line up that will wow audiences and really get people excited about coming here.

"We wanted to make sure there is something for everyone in our opening celebration and that our local audience have a place they can feel proud of."

Tickets are now on sale for a line up that will include Bellowhead frontman Jon Boden on his first solo tour; internationally acclaimed artist Sharon Shannon; the award winning poet Lemn Sissay; comedy from news reporter act, Jonathan Pie and Manchester favourite Justin Moorhouse.

Opening the festival will be Joanne Shaw Taylor who was discovered by Eurythmics' Dave Stewart as a 16 year old guitar prodigy and is now one of the hottest young names on the British Blues circuit.

Acclaimed songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Watkins will perform tracks from her new album Young In All The Wrong Ways on the Friday alongside Scandinavian folk roots band Basco.

Critically acclaimed progressive rock band QI will also play the weekend with one-part of popular Irish American band Cherish the Ladies, Heidi Talbot.

Julia Fordham is returning to the UK after three sell out tours for the celebrations and Ian Dury fans will be excited to see legendary outfit The Blockheads.

The Met’s new theatre space will accommodate audiences of up to 270 seated and 400 standing.

A brand new opened up bar area and entrance are just some of the major front of house improvements that have been made to the Victorian building, designed by architect Sydney Smirke, who is best known today for his work on the circular reading room at the British Museum.

To book or find out more visit themet.biz.