PREPARATIONS are well underway today as Southampton gets ready for Common People this weekend.

Southampton Common has been a hive of activity from early this morning as the stages have been erected ready for a host of acts including headliners Craig David and Duran Duran.

By lunchtime today the site was starting to take shape as the Common Stage, Uncontained Stage and Uncommon Stage were built.

Everything from the bars to the banks of portable toilets were in place and multi-coloured flags and a helter-skelter added a colourful festival vibe.

The common will be hosting no fewer than 70 music acts across the weekend with an expected audience of 30,000 across the two days.

There will be six bars including two specialist cocktail bars (The Jam Jar Bar/Bollywood Cocktail Bus) a real ale bar (The Travelling Barn) and a VIP Bar (The Nook).

No one will be going hungry either with 26 food concessions setting up on site.

The Arts & Crafts and sideshows will include Bigtopmania Circus Skills, The People Front Room, Spinney Hollow, a Batala Band (Brazilian drummers) a knitting tent and, of course, the world’s biggest bouncy castle!

The Uncommon Stage is curated in association with Southampton music venue the Joiners and will showcase lots of local talent too.

Common People is a blockbuster two-day metropolitan adventure. A bank holiday bonanza from the makers of Bestival, it will feature Primal Scream, Duran Duran, Craig David’s TS5, Public Enemy, Gaz Coombes, Katy B and many more, all topped off with a lavish helping of the Bestival team’s renowned magic, mayhem and merriment.