Shropshire Star

Shrewsbury goes pop! Call to target younger fans at Quarry concerts

Shrewsbury should hold a spectacular pop concert with Britain's biggest artists every summer – rivalling events in Birmingham and Telford, say town councillors.

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They want to look for new artists for the two-day summer concert at the Quarry.

July's concert featured Jools Holland, Mel C and Marc Almond, but after a poor turnout Shrewsbury Town Council is considering looking for acts that might appeal to a younger audience.

While some of the blame for the low turnout has been put down to the weather, councillors have asked to consider different acts, saying it could emulate the success of Jessie J coming to the town in 2012, which attracted a sell-out crowd of 11,000.

Councillor Miles Kenny said other pop artists would go down a treat in the Quarry and should be something the council looked at doing every year.

He said: "I think Jools Holland is still very popular – but we should be exploring other artists. We had Jessie J and it worked a treat and if we can, we should be getting more acts like that.

"Weather will always have an effect, but not for certain artists. It is a bit much for mums to have to take their youngsters to places like the NEC in Birmingham to see their favourite acts. There is no reason why we can't get them to come here.

"People like Lady Gaga or Ed Sheeran would go down a treat here. The Quarry is a ready-made arena for this sort of thing and is easily accessible. If we can get artists in that appeal to the younger audience then it will stop people travelling out of town and will actually bring people in."

The idea will be discussed further at a town council meeting next month.

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