Shropshire Star

David Burrows: A million reasons (and more) to celebrate Shrewsbury

Rio? Pah. Pamplona? It's for the tourists. Mardi Gras? Mardi Schma. No, if you want festivals there is only one place to be. Shrewsbury.

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The Town of Flowers is fast gaining a new reputation as the town of fun and frivolity. And if anyone is any doubt whether that's a good thing for the town or not, the evidence is now there that indeed it is.;

Just four of Shrewsbury's events helped rake in more than one million smackeroos for the town last year, according to research commission by Shropshire Council.

Now the likes of Wayne Rooney might have earned that by the time they've tied up their boot laces, but that kind of contribution to the local economy is not to be sniffed at.

The four events the council chose to look at were the folk festival, food festival, cartoon festival and river festival.

Now, without being mean to the other three, the folk festival is the only one with anything like a national or international reputation. No surprise, then, that it brought in more than half a million quid all on its own.

The food festival will, no doubt, earn a wider reputation as time goes on, but last year was the very first one. However, such was its success that it generated £180,000 for the town, with the cartoon festival bringing in £200,000 and the river festival £166,000.

Why these four festivals were selected, I don't know, but the £1 million bonanza comes without arguably Shrewsbury's most famous event, the Shrewsbury Flower Show. How much more does that boost the coffers?

And there's more. Shrewsbury Fields Forever. The Shropshire Show. The Regatta. The returning Quarry concert. Safe to say these will all bring in visitors and, more importantly, their money.

On top of this, Shrewsbury Town FC is looking for permission to hold more concerts at its Greenhous Meadow stadium after the success of Elton John's 2011 gig which attracted an audience of more than 15,000 people. If that gets the green light, even more wonga comes into the local coffers.

Shrewsbury is an ideal place for festivals, when you think about it. The county town, with a stadium, a huge out-of-town (but not TOO far out-of-town) showground, and a large town centre park, which is a natural amphitheatre. On top of that, a river runs through it (sounds like a good title for a film. I may pursue that idea).

I still believe the river and the Quarry are underused and that there is scope for even more events.

But for now maybe I should just be satisfied with what we've got and say: Shrewsbury, thanks a million.

Plus the money all the other events bring in.

No, just 'thanks a million'.

That's much snappier.

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