ORGANISERS have hailed the fourth Westbury Music and Arts Festival as the best ever, with more and more people making the most of the events on offer.
This year’s programme included top names such as ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ finalist Sam Kelly and hit songwriter Tony Hazzard. Returning favourites such as the Opus One Swing Band, Finnegan’s Wake Irish folk band, the Lee Ingram Jazz Quintet, and the Big Draw at Matravers proved as popular as ever.
The festival aims to bring culture and entertainment to the town and villages with something for all ages and tastes. After a busy two-week programme, the festival drew to a close on Saturday evening with a party and dance with Opus One Swing Band.
Roy Inwood, chair of the festival committee said, “People have said it’s wonderful and they’ve thoroughly enjoyed what they’ve seen – they didn’t realise what they’d been missing until going to the events! And the performers have said they’ve enjoyed themselves as well.
“The festival does seem to be getting more known. There is a wider variety of people noticing it and wanting to come, which is good. We have had some people who thought it was all highbrow stuff but it’s not, there’s something there for everyone and the people who have come to events have realised that.
“The idea of this is to put Westbury on the map, we’re giving something to the people of the town, but the festival also gets more people into the town. That actually brings business – people come to the events, might stop overnight, wander round the shops and buy something.”
After the success of this year’s festival, ideas for next year are already in the pipeline. Roy said, “It gets better ever year, and we’ve got to try and improve on it every time. My thoughts are to change it slightly – you can’t do the same old things every year as that gets boring. It’s nice just to change things slightly to add a bit more flavour. We’ve already got a few ideas in mind.
“If anybody has got any suggestions for ideas, suggestions of what they’d like to see, they would be most welcome. If the younger generation wants to see something we will try and put it on.”
The festival’s website www.wmafestival.co.uk will now remain active, so that other arts events in the town can be publicised throughout the year.
