Shropshire Star

Future of balloon carnival up in the air

Businesses are being urged to step in and ensure the future of Oswestry's Balloon Carnival, which attracted thousands of people to the town centre last month.

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The town council joined forces with Oswestry's Lindstrand Technologies and Nightingale House charity to bring the festival to Cae Glas Park over the bank holiday weekend.

About 8,000 people were in the parking the Saturday evening to watch the flights and night glow events.

Now the council wants businesses to help sponsor next year's event to ensure it gets off the ground.

A report to Wednesday's town council meeting from clerk, David Preston, said the event had been commended by the Civic Aviation Authority for its safety and balloonists said they enjoyed flying from the park.

"Local businesses seem to have benefited from the event, with several reporting the Saturday as their busiest day of the year," he said.

He said the council had set aside a budget of £10,000 for the carnival to cover the cost of infrastructure, safety measures and some entertainment for the 2018 carnival.

"The event was not well supported by local businesses in terms of sponsorship and in terms of engagement," the report said.

"There is a commitment from the partners to work with the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Improvement District and other businesses in the town to ascertain their support in the former of sponsorship, financial or in kind, to the value of £10,000. This is needed to secure the future of the event and recognises the considerable benefit to local businesses of having such a large town centre event."

He said that a decision would need to be made in January on the outcome of the work before a decision could be made about the 2019 carnival.