Ludlow Spring Festival fails to break even again

Ludlow Spring Festival has yet to break even despite doubling in size each year since it began in 2008, organisers said today.

More than 8,000 people flocked to Ludlow Castle over the weekend for the festival but organiser Beth Heath said the event was still being supported by its 'big brother' – the more established Ludlow Food Festival held in September. Mrs Heath said the numbers were still being crunched from this year's two-day extravaganza.

She went on to say more details on its performance would follow at the end of this week.

But she added the figures gathered so far were extremely positive and she hoped the Spring Festival was on course to become self-sustaining.

She said: "About 4,300 people came through the castle gates on Saturday alone.

"The Spring Festival has not yet made a profit.

"It has not yet broken even. Hopefully this will be the first year it has managed to break even.

"At the moment its big brother – the September festival – is supporting it big style so we want it to succeed, but it needs to stand on its own two feet."

Other figures from the weekend festival show 10,500 pints of beer were sold from Friday night to Saturday with more barrels being drafted in by brewers to cope with demand.

Mrs Heath added more than 65 different local producers had stalls dotted around the town's castle with at least 10 of them having to cook, bake and prepare more food overnight before Sunday because of a hectic Saturday's trade.

Mrs Heath also praised people from the town for helping to organise and work at the festival.

She added: "We had 90 stewards on site from Ludlow who volunteered their time, they did this because they love Ludlow. We would not have been able to cope without them.

"A lot of people have told me they prefer this to the summer festival because it's more chilled.

"On Saturday in the castle's outer bailey people were dancing, singing, sitting on the grass or just lying around sunbathing until 9pm at night, it was brilliant.

"The amount of positive comments and positive feedback we have had make this festival worthwhile."

See also:

• Thousands flock to Ludlow Spring Festival