Watch out Glastonbury – Midlands music is stealing a march

Ah, the great British Summer: rainsoaked picnics where you're forced to slice Pork Pie using a credit card after forgetting the cutlery; approximately five days of glorious weather; those precious weeks where politicians are busy making sand castles instead of ruining the country; and the hallowed festival period where you can see the best music the world has to offer. What more could you ask for?

Although in truth, we've probably already had our allotment of sunshine with that delightful week in early June; instead of photos of MPs in suits we now have to see their pale legs in swimming trunks with matching grins that look like someone's pulled their brows back and stapled them into a perma-smirk. And you'll be finding those pastry crumbs in your wallet until Christmas.

But while everything else fades into insignificance, at least you're still left with the opportunity to listen to some of the best contemporary music at one of the biggest music festivals around.

Yes, summer time means the kick-off to the now legendary Glastonbury Festival. A music festival that's slowly grown into something of a national event, whether you're in the rain sodden fields or watching it at home on the BBC. Somewhat buoyed by all their recent success in covering the Olympics, Jubilee and the Royal Wedding before it, the BBC is promising coverage of Glastonbury that will rival anything they've previously offered.

Quibbles over the Rolling Stone's set aside – we might be able to see four songs or an hour or however long the Stones' accountant finds acceptable; it looks set to be the first festival where you get most of the enjoyment of being at the event whilst avoiding the mudbath that the fields invariably turn into.

And as the first year of truly digital coverage of the festival offers us unprecedented access to hundreds of acts from every continent and every corner of our own fair isle, you may or may not be surprised to know that the local area is home to some of the most exciting acts heading to the festival.

Among the cream of the crop from across the three days is Wolverhampton's own Beverley Knight, headlining the Avalon stage on Saturday night. After winning enough awards during her esteemed career that she could melt them down and start trading in commodities, the soul singer is returning to play the festival for the first time in over ten years. Coming off the back of a barnstorming performance at the Paralympics Opening Ceremony, she's heading to the festival amongst a cabal of up and coming artists from the local area.

In fact Birmingham, the city that's home to goliaths like Black Sabbath, Duran Duran and ELO has enjoyed quite the musical renaissance of late. Some of the brightest sparks in the industry now hail from the nation's second city as part of the Digbeth-based B-Town scene. Chief representatives of which are the indie media-darlings Peace and Swim Deep (both of whom feature on Friday's line-up on the John Peel Stage). Grabbing the attention of opinion makers, both bands are a genuinely exciting prospect to look out for in the coming months.

Although it's important to note the local musical landscape is as varied as you might expect from the West Midlands and it'd be remiss not to mention Goodnight Lenin. Playing the Croissant Neuf Stage on Saturday, the band has crafted a vibrant folk/pop sound that can match anything the current flock of mainstream folk musicians can muster.

However, chief amongst this latest crop of emerging talent is 27-year-old Laura Mvula from King's Heath in Birmingham. A graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire, Mvula recently hit the album charts and has been heralded by all and sundry as this generation's answer to Nina Simone.

And if you needed any more proof of the diversity of music in the local area, you need look no further than Electric Swing Circus. Playing Glastonbury for the first time on the Glade stage on Saturday, the Birmingham-based troupe plays "big band brass and gypsy jazz meets big bass and thundering beats".

Indeed, this summer looks set to not only be a good year for Glastonbury, but an especially good one for local acts.