Festival organiser hails success with plans under way for next year

Darren Wood, organiser of the Water's Edge Festival, in Newport said they had been thrilled with more than 1,300 people attending the new event.

Organised by the New Inn pub, where Mr Wood is landlord, the event took place in Chetwynd Deer Park on Saturday with nine hours of live music and entertainment proving a big hit with crowds.

Mr Wood said that plans are already underway for the festival to return in two slots next year – one on May 28, and another on September 10.

After more than 18 months without large scale events it was more evidence of the public's appetite to return to some kind of normality.

Mr Wood said: "It went really well, it was our inaugural festival so we are chuffed to bits and it was a complete sell out which was great."

The organiser said that the original 1,000 tickets for the event had gone in less than 12 hours – with another couple of hundred added and then snapped up soon after.

Mr Wood said that the venue had lent itself perfectly to a community event, while allowing people plenty of outdoor space.

He said: "It is something I have had in my mind for a couple of years now. It is such a beautiful venue I thought it would be great to do a festival there.

"With Covid we weren't able to run any of our festivals at the New Inn and we have missed them over the past couple of years so we just thought let's do it given that there's a beautiful park to work in, lots of space, it's outdoors."

Mr Wood said that the feedback from the event had been overwhelmingly positive, with people taking the chance to enjoy a "community event".

He said: "The atmosphere was amazing, really friendly, with a great mix of people just sitting in the sunshine listening to good music drinking good beer."

The work is now on to get ready for next year.

Mr Wood said: "Our plan is to do two down there next year and we have got the dates booked already."