TIM HUGHES looks forward to one of the most important dates in the city’s cultural calendar – the Oxford Punt.

GLASTONBURY has its festival, Notting Hill its carnival, and Camden its ‘Crawl’. Oxford, meanwhile, has its Punt.

Compact and perfectly formed, this showcase of talent follows a unique formula which, for followers of new music, has made it one of the most important dates in the cultural calendar.

The concept is straightforward enough: take about 20 new bands, stick them on stage in a handful of city centre venues, and invite music-lovers to ‘take a punt’ by dipping into the resulting smorgasbord of sound.

Oh... and bands can only play it once; and they have to be local – so it can’t help but stay fresh, even 13 years on.

“It is a unique event,” says the Oxford Punt’s founder Ronan Munro, editor of local music magazine Nightshift.

“Bands have to apply – and the golden rule is they have to be from Oxfordshire, which makes it purely local. There are no big out-of-town bands to headline.”

This year the action takes place on Wednesday at regular haunts The Cellar, The Purple Turtle and The Wheatsheaf – and two new additions: Malmaison and Coca Royal.

On offer will be everything from gentle acoustic folk to raucous indie-rock and prog metal.

Highlights include the 60s feelgood Mod-pop stylings of The Anydays; the paint-peeling riff-crunching metal of Taste My Eyes; the dark, rootsy harmonies of Samuel Zasada, pictured; the dark, stompy-glam Barbare11a, and Dryaton’s hotly tipped Dead Jerichos.

“It’s the best way of seeing the hottest new bands in Oxford – and it means you don’t have to go to 22 gigs,” says Ronan.

“It’s really cheap, great fun and is brilliant for punters and bands. It’s one of the best nights of the year, which is why people keep coming back for it.

“Every year I look at the line-up and think ‘it can’t possibly be as good as this again next year’, but it always is; the standard is consistently high. And look at the bands to have played the Punt in the past – The Young Knives, Stornoway, Little Fish and the previous incarnations of Foals and Jonquil – all of whom have gone on to great things.”

With bands invited to send in demos or myspace links, it’s Ronan’s task to whittle the hopefuls down to 22 acts – with one night-closing headliner to play the Cellar at midnight. This year the honours fall to the slightly bonkers, but utterly compulsive Vicars of Twiddly – surf rock played by monks and vicars and a go-go dancing nun. The last band on has either got to be really great fun... or so loud that people can’t talk over them.

“It is a hard job picking these bands, though,” he admits. “The standard is so high and we always limit it so bands can’t play twice. People really want to play the Punt as its a great showcase and, for some, its the first time they will have played to a big crowd.”

The classy new venues of Coca Royal and Malmaison are also causing some excitement.

“They’re great spots and are really nice and relaxed. We weren’t allowed to book any acts with drum kits there, though, so we had to cram all the acoustic acts and singer-songwriters in there, which is quite cool.

“It’s phenomenal how much good music there is here. Look at the towns and cities that surround us – places like Reading, Northampton, Swindon, Cheltenham and High Wycombe. None of them have anything compared to what we have here – even though Oxford is smaller than many of them.”

So why? “Well, the university makes it a creative city, but, more than that, there are lot of good people working very hard.

“In Oxford, the bar is set very high indeed.”

* The Oxford Punt takes place on Wednesday. Punters are advised to grab one of the limited number of all-venue Punt passes, for £7. Coco Royal has free entry, the rest have individual admission charges - except Malmaison which will only be open to Punt pass holders and hotel residents.

Passes are available from The Scribbler in Bonn Square; The Music Box in Cowley Road or from oxfordmusic.net l Malmaison 7pm Helen Pearson 7.45 m We Are Ugly But We Have The Music 8.30pm Samuel Zasada 9.15pm Telling The Bees l The Purple Turtle 7.30pm The Anydays 8.15pm Dead Jerichos 9pm Sealings 9.45pm Risen In Black 10.30pm Spring Offensive l The Wheatsheaf 8.15pm Message To Bears 9pm Fixers 9.45pm Empty Vessels 10.30pm Taste My Eyes l Coco Royal 8.30pm Aiden Canaday 9.15pm The Roundheels 10pm Mariana Magnavita 10.45pm Peepworld, l The Cellar 9pm Beard of Zeuss 9.45pm Ute 10.30pm Scholars 11.15pm Barbare11a Midnight Vicars of Twiddly