A MUSICIAN has written a song about alleged murder victim Sophie Lancaster - and she will perform it at a festival in her memory.

A 12-hour music marathon at Bacup Borough ground West View will begin at 1pm on Saturday with bands from all over Lancashire taking to the stage throughout the event.

Kelly Roddy, lead singer of Bacup band Cosmic Slop, has organised the festival and wrote the song "Walk in the Park", to raise money for a memorial fund.

Sophie, a former Haslingden High pupil from Bacup, died in hospital in August two weeks after she was attacked in Stubbylee Park.

Her boyfriend Rob Maltby survived the incident. It is suspected they may have been targeted due to their "gothic" style of clothing.

Kelly, 34, of Kiln Terrace, Stacksteads, said: "Everyone has been so shocked by what happened to Sophie that I felt I wanted to do something, not just to raise cash but also to get everyone enjoying themselves together and not bothering how someone else looks.

"I didn't know Sophie well but my son Jay knew her and I have always told him it's good to be different.

"That's what the song's all about, and that's what the festival's all about. We haven't had long to organise it but we've had help from loads of people.

"We've managed to get more than 15 acts to perform, and I've tried hard to get as many different music styles as I could, to really show that we want everyone, no matter what their taste, to get involved.

"We'll be performing 'Walk in the Park' at around 2.30pm, and we hope there will be lots of people there to hear it and think about Sophie."

The festival has been combined with Bacup Borough FC's Vodkat Northern Counties league match against Abbey Hey, which will kick off at 3pm, with free entry to the match.

Kelly said: "Everyone finds it hard to talk about what happened to Sophie because it's just too horrible for words, but hopefully we can bring people together with this."

Five youths have appeared in court charged with Sophie's murder.