CROWDS are expected to descend on York and North Yorkshire this weekend for a series of events showcasing live music, vintage machinery and rural life.

The 59th Pickering Traction Engine Rally is steaming into action from today, displaying vintage machinery and engines.

This annual four-day event also boasts its first music festival which will be held on Saturday along with performances on Friday evening and Sunday morning.

Joint organiser Simon Boak said: “We are aiming to hold a more varied event with something for everyone, including some top quality musicians. We also have a huge number of vehicles and attractions at this show which is now the biggest four-day outdoor spectacular in the UK.”

The event includes three large show stages, crafts and antique stalls, trade stands and model engine exhibitions.

It opens today from 10am to 5pm, Friday from 9am to 11pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 5pm.

Admission is adults £10 and under 16s £5. A family ticket is £25 and under fives are free.

Meanwhile, Dudestock, a one-day music festival, is at Knavesmire on Saturday featuring unsigned bands in aid of York Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit.

Organiser Kristian Lewin said: “Organising a music festival with no budget has been a real challenge, challenges we are still facing. We know that the stress will be worth it in the end though.”

York bands River City Ransom, The Pauper Kings, Testtone3, and Dead Rebellion will play, along with the FALLEN, A Joker’s Rage, and Believe in FATE who were finalists at last month’s Live & Unsigned competition at the London O2.

Tickets cost £13, or £39 for a family ticket for four. Children under 12 go free.

Tickets are available from 01904 270490, at Montey’s bar in Micklegate, or at dudestock.co.uk

Another crowd-puller is the annual Tockwith Show on Saturday when visitors will see displays of working rural crafts, a farmers’ market and wide range of attractions including traditional classes, a children’s section, fancy dress and poetry. Leading farriers will be going head to head in the 2011 horseshoe challenge, judged by former national champion farrier David Smith.

Show chairman Sam Blacker said: “Tockwith Show has become a great social occasion but above all it helps to educate people in the traditions of the countryside. This is more important than ever in today’s society when many people who live in the countryside have little or no farming background.”

The Wilberforce Trust is this year’s charity, chosen by Mike Tham, President of the Tockwith agricultural association, and will have a stand inviting people to make life-size animal sculptures from chicken wire and waste fabrics.

Tickets are available on the gate. For details, visit tockwithshow.org.uk