Jazz festival saved

A Shropshire jazz festival, which was under threat after nearly two decades, has been saved after a new venue was found, it has been revealed today.

Tim Lord, organiser of the Ludlow event, today said he was delighted to have found a new venue for a scaled down 'mini festival' on July 4 and 5 at the eleventh hour.

He had previously announced plans to ditch the Ludlow Jazz Festival because of problems finding a new venue.

Mr Lord said the owner of the Charlton Arms, Graham Willson-Lloyd had stepped in to offer the pub's function suite for the festival after he read about its plight in the Shropshire Star.

And a delighted Mr Lord said he thinks the Charlton Arms will fit the bill.

He is now busy securing jazz musicians to perform during the weekend. He said: "I am so pleased for Ludlow, it will be such good fun."

Mr Willson-Lloyd added: "We are starting to have a lot of music events. The Charlton Arms has undergone a major restoration including a new function suite with the terraces overlooking the river. It is in a prime location. I know Tim, I know the jazz festival and I know most of the people who perform.

"I don't think Tim knew that we have this new function suite. It keeps it alive and we do have a lot of jazz fans as customers anyway."

The event has traditionally been held at the Bull Hotel in Corve Street but the pub has had a series of licensing problems surrounding noise and disturbances during the last year.

In December licensing chiefs ordered the management to reduce its late night weekend opening hours.

Mr Lord said he had intended to give up organising the festival after 2009 anyway, but due to the problems he felt unable to continue and finding another suitable venue in the town was proving very difficult.