THE annual Oxjam music festival is promising to showcase a host of Oxford’s freshest talent – while raising money for a great cause.

Two members of local band CyberScribes squeezed into an Oxfam shop basement to entertain a small crowd at Friday’s launch event.

Oxjam is a nationwide event which aims to raise money for Oxford-based charity Oxfam through music.

To mark the start of the fundraising drive, Kevin Jenkins performed with Phoebe Maina in Oxfam’s Broad Street store.

Mr Jenkins said: “This is the first ever Oxfam store so we really wanted to do a gig here to launch Oxjam in Oxford.”

The store gig echoed similar performances to launch the festival in Oxfam stores in London by artists such as Basement Jaxx and Fatboy Slim.

The main event in the city is OX4, which takes place on Saturday at 10 venues in Cowley Road, including Baby Simple and The Zodiac.

The mini-festival has been organised by the team behind Truck and tickets cost £15, or £12 for 14- to 18- year-olds.

Acts including The Big Pink, This Town Needs Guns and Mr Shaodow are performing and there will also be films and art installations.

The festival also features creative workshops such as song writing, film scripts and recording singles in a mobile studio.

Since the Oxjam festival began in 2006, it has raised more than £1m to support Oxfam’s work.

This year there will be an added focus as Oxfam is using the festival to draw attention to its “Here and Now” climate change campaign.

People will be asked to paint their faces blue or fill in a card to demand action on climate change – “until they are blue in the face”.

OX4 aims to raise awareness of the issues as well as raising money for Oxfam. All the local bands are performing for free, venues are not charging for their space and ticket agencies are giving Oxfam half their fees.

To volunteer to help collect money or paint faces, call Matt Adams on 07999615544.

For OX4 tickets, OX4 log on at wegottickets.com