Hopes of holding Shrewsbury river festival every year

A massive festival which will see a flotilla of boats sailing down the River Severn in Shrewsbury to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee next summer could become an annual event, it was claimed today.

While a 1,000-strong flotilla is travelling down the River Thames to mark the occasion on June 3 next year, Shrewsbury is planning to hold its own river festival to celebrate 60 years of the Queen's reign.

Shrewsbury and Shropshire Waterways and Leisure Group wants to get a fleet of boats to sail down the river as part of the festival.

And today Edward Goddard, chairman of Destination Shrewsbury which promotes the town, said he hoped it could take place every year.

Organisers say the festival could become an annual event if it is a success next year, when steam boats, canoes and coracles take to the water, while the Quarry will host a fun fair and angling demonstrations.

Today Mr Goddard said: "It is an exceptionally good idea. It would be very nice for the town to mark the jubilee in some way."

He said he hoped the festival could become an annual event if it is properly marketed.

"Next year, it will be particularly special because it is the jubilee and hopefully it can become an annual event. We need to bring more life to the river and this is a very good way of doing that," he said.

The cost of the event is expected to be higher than £20,000 and organisers are now hoping to get £5,000 in funding towards the expenses for it from the Shrewsbury-wide Local Joint Committee which will meet next Thursday.

Organisers have also applied for £3,000 of funding from Shrewsbury Town Council to further help them foot the bill for the event, after a £10,000 grant application from the Lottery Awards for All programme was recently refused.

Shropshire Council officer Gill Jones said the LJC would have a number of factors to consider when deciding whether to accept the grant application, especially if organisers are looking to make the river festival an annual event.