Bosses cancel balloon bonanza

This year's Llangollen Balloon Festival has been cancelled because organisers say the weather is so unpredictable.

The festival has been held every September since 1996 with businessman David Green taking over its running when it almost folded four years ago.

But Mr Green today announced this year's event had been scrapped, saying: "The festival costs over £40,000 to stage and the balloons are 100 per cent weather dependent.

"With no external funding or financial support of any kind, we can't afford to risk this kind of outlay, given the British weather."

The festival has been hit by poor weather conditions in recent years which affected how many balloons were able to fly during the event, which attracts thousands of visitors to the town.

Mr Green added: "I am pleased that last year's festival was a success with 12 balloons flying and a total of 25 balloons on site though many were unable to fly."

He said he would still be running other shows in Llangollen, including a gardening show in June, a motorbike show in August and the food festival in October.

He said: "We would like to stress that our other highly successful events continue to go from strength-to-strength. We are committed to working on new events at the Royal International Pavilion in Llangollen and other venues so we can continue to contribute to the economy."