And they're off! Folk music fans descend on Shrewsbury for festival

The four-day Shrewsbury Folk Festival could boost the town's economy by a cool £1 million, despite the much earlier cancellation of pre-launch events in the town centre.

As many as 7,000 fans of traditionally inspired music each day are expected to converge at the West Midlands Showground. They will be seeing artists including The Christians, Oysterband, Lindisfarne, and headliner Kate Rusby.

Tipped among those to look and listen out for are Afro Celt Sound System and Welsh act Pendevig.

The campsite opened on Thursday and the organisers have traffic management plans in place to ease the load along Berwick Road and Gravel Hill Lane, in Coton Hill.

Spokesperson Jo Cunningham said there are many attractions this year, including food from around the world, plenty of drinks, performances, workshops and ceilidhs on the Purity Village Stage plus pop-up performances around the site.

There is also be an array of things to keep the children occupied, a craft fair, produce stalls involving local businesses.

And of course there will be the stages, this year there are three in the open air, to allow for social distancing.

Visitors are being asked to take Covid lateral flow tests and to stay away if they test positive. Refunds will be given for those who test positive.

They even have backup plans to deal with last minute cancellations in case artists or stallholders have to pull out because of Covid.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival has been a fixture at Shrewsbury's West Midlands Showground since 2007.

And this year, luckily with everything in the open air, even the weather seems set fair for the Bank Holiday weekend.