Bishop's Castle Arts Festival makes £1k towards next event
A town's arts festival has gone with a swing and made more than £1,000 towards next year's event.
Bishop's Castle Arts Festival is in fine fettle after attracting hundreds to the town from all over the country across five days, culminating at the weekend.
Events ranged from ukulele and jewellery-making workshops to pantomime and blues gigs, alongside exhibitions of the visual arts. Sue Wilmer, chairman of the festival, said feedback had been overwhelmingly positive and donations towards future events had topped last year.
She said: "It was a great success, there lots of people at all the things.
"We had three music concerts on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night and they were all well attended. We had exit poll sheets at all the events asking how far everyone had come and what they made of it. We had people from Somerset, Nottingham, Southampton, Milton Keynes and Watford.
"I suppose people come if they have relatives here, and also it was advertised on the Castle Hotel's website. But we might have got more people from elsewhere if Shropshire didn't have its half term a week later than everywhere else.
"All the comments people left were things like 'excellent', 'delightful' and 'marvellous', we haven't seen a bad comment." She said not all of the money had been counted but things were already looking good.
"We haven't had all the money in yet but we've already counted more than £1,000 which is up on last year," she said.
As for next year, ideas would come from a post-festival get together for everyone involved, she said. "We'll now have a bit of a debrief and a do for all the people who have volunteered to do stuff as a thank you."
