Internationally acclaimed DJs and live acts have drawn large crowds of music fans during a new music and arts festival for Ipswich over the weekend.

The inaugural Ipswich Weekender, organised by annual Woodbridge-based arts festival Noise of Art and Ipswich Borough Council, took place in Holywells Park during the day and at town centre clubs at night.

Headline acts included Danny Rampling, a forefather of the UK club scene, one-time Glastonbury headliners The Woodentops, DJ Diesel, 1960s experimentalists White Noise and Suffolk-based afrobeat/acid jazz group The Norman.

It was the first of three Ipswich Weekenders being held this year. The event, which aims to become an annual fixture in the town’s cultural calendar, returns with a summer event over the weekend of July 2 and 3.

The event at the weekend marked 50 years since ‘immersive art’ met music in 1966, when The Beatles found their psychedelic side. The night events took place at Pump and Grind in Great Colman Street and at The Music Room in Duke Street.

Ben Osborne, who 10 years ago founded Noise of Art, an electronic music and cross platform arts collective, said: “The event has got space to grow, but all of the acts were phenomenal. Danny Rampling and DJ Diesel played amazing sets and said they can really see the potential of this event, and the potential that Ipswich has.

“There is a group of people in Ipswich who are really keen to get a new scene going and I think the time is perfect for that. With new clubs like Pump and Grind and University Campus Suffolk gaining independent status, which will add an extra feeling of confidence and bring in more students, there is a real aspiration that a new wave of culture is coming to the town. It is a zeitgeist thing. There is a will in lots of different areas.”

Richard Sharp, community engagement and volunteer officer at the Holywells Park Heritage Lottery project, said: “It has been a great event in our new performance area and we look forward to the next event.”