Shrewsbury Winter Festival cancelled over safety fears

Following last year's snow affecting trade when the festival was staged at the Quarry, event organiser Beth Heath was on the lookout for a new site.

She decided that this year's event, set to take place in early December, would be under cover and was in talks with University Centre Shrewsbury to use the car park underneath the Guildhall in Frankwell.

But following discussions with health and safety officers it was decided that the venue was not a viable option.

And with just weeks to go before the festival was due to take place, the decision has been taken to call it off.

The 70 exhibitors, musicians and entertainers who had been lined up for the festival, which is now in its third year, have all been informed of the news.

Beth said: "Safety comes first and although we are very sad not to be able to have the winter festival this year, we know we have made the right decision.

"We spoke to the health and safety officers with a view to holding the festival in the car park underneath the Guildhall but there would just not have been enough evacuation points for people to get out in case of a fire. It was not designed for 1000s of people. We had thought we may have been able to get around it but this was not the case.

"We decided it was better to just walk away. If we could not get the people in it would not have been worth it for the producers and exhibitors."

Beth says the festival will return next year when a new venue can be found. She said: "We have plans in place for 2019 and we will be back."

In 2017, the event was marred by heavy rainfall and despite last year's Arctic weather, thousands of people attended and were able to join in with the carol singing, sample the mulled wine and browse the craft and artisan food stalls.