Much Wenlock Festival a record breaker
Much Wenlock Festival has been hailed as a huge success by organisers after records were broken during another successful year.
The bi-annual festival, which has been running for 36 years, saw 2,500 festival-goers attend over the course of the two weeks – a 15 per cent increase compared to 2016.
The open garden day also broke festival records with 400 visitors descending on the gardens of Much Wenlock.
Songs from the West End was a huge hit, with all tickets selling out for the festival prior to the event.
Peter Wight, chairman of the Much Wenlock Festival, said he was thrilled the festival was so well-received. He said: “We are constantly striving to make the festival bigger and better year on year so to be able to announce these record-breaking figures really is a terrific feeling.
“The amount of support we have seen from local residents attending multiple evenings has been fantastic. We have even attracted festival-goers from much further afield – our proms evening raffle winner had come all the way from Bristol.
“When we put together the line-up for 2018 we wanted to make sure there was something for everyone which has worked well this year at attracting all ages to the different events.”
The festival has also had a positive knock-on effect to the town and wider community with local businesses feeling the effect of extra visitors to the town. Peter said: “I have been told by multiple businesses in the town how they have seen an upturn in trade during the fortnight. The festival really is fantastic at putting the town on the map.”
He attributes the success of the festival to a concentration on promoting the festival digitally as well as bringing in sponsor Nathan Rous PR to implement a PR strategy.
Peter added: “When we launched promotion of the festival this year we concentrated our efforts and advertising spend around social media promotion.
“Libby Calaby, a local freelance digital content manager, headed up the campaign which reached thousands of people who hadn’t heard of the festival before.
“We were also supported by national creative agency, Nathan Rous PR, who are based in Much Wenlock. They worked tirelessly to raise the profile of the festival across numerous titles in the media.
“This year’s festival has highlighted how much of a need there still is for festivals like this to keep going so that communities are brought together and I can’t wait to start planning the next one. Here’s to a bigger and better 2020.”
Plans for the 2020 festival are already in motion.
