Shrewsbury Rocks 80s festival to 'whet the appetite' of people coming to town

Shrewsbury Town Council has said the Shrewsbury Rocks 80s music event which will be held in the Quarry on May 27 will help boost to town's economy.

The claims have been made in a letter responding to trustees of the board of the West Mid Show, who had written to the council to complain that scheduling the event on the same day as the Shropshire County Show will hit attendance numbers and revenue.

But town clerk Helen Ball has defended the scheduling and said the offer to host the concert, which will star Billy Ocean, ABC and Tony Hadley, was something they could not turn down.

In her letter she said: “This promoter was originally trying to host this event in Birmingham and already had an impressive line-up.

“When that venue fell through, his coming to us was a request we could not refuse.

“We have regular requests from residents for concerts in the Quarry and this means that locals will stay in the town more and use more local services.

“Interestingly also is the fact that the promoter had contacted those on his Birmingham database and he has already sold over 1000 tickets already.

“These are new people to the town and this is a great opportunity to whet their appetite for coming back again to Shrewsbury.

“Our concert promoter has considerable experience of managing concerts in the Quarry and liaising with stakeholders about the impact on his event beyond the Quarry.

“In us agreeing to events in the Quarry we do have cognisance of other events in an around the town, the demographics of the target audience and the infrastructure requirements for that event.

“As is the case for every event in the Quarry we notify all the emergency services and highways colleagues as well as SAG and to date we have had no adverse comment."

Mrs Ball also reiterated the belief that the concert will be appealing to a different audience to the county show.

Her letter stated: “We retain the view that the audience demographics for the 80s concert is very different from an agricultural show and given the location of the showground and the Quarry the impacts on local infrastructure is minimal.”

“If I were a member of the West Midlands Trustee Board I would be looking at how my event and facilities at the Showground could be used to complement rather than conflict with other events.

“As with many big events in the Quarry, hotel rooms book up fast and maybe giving people options to camp, and provide shuttle service into town may derive a nice income stream.

“This promoter is very good at what he does and I would certainly be offering my facilities if I were a trustee.”

Mrs Ball was writing her letter in response to correspondence from Lance Jackson, chairman of the board of trustees.

Members of the board of trustees from the West Mid Showground will attend next week's full council meeting to raise their concerns about the clash.