Will Wimborne Folk Festival be back next year? (From Bournemouth Echo)

Strong support for bid to save Wimborne Folk Festival

1:00pm Saturday 22nd September 2012 in News By Melanie Vass

A BID to revive Wimborne Folk Festival has received ‘strong support’ from the community – but there’s still a lot of work to do.

Around 45 people attended a meeting set up by East Dorset District Council earlier this week to discuss the future of the popular festival.

The summer folk festival was first held in 1980 and attracts around 25,000 people over three days in June.

But the former organisers recently announced this year’s event would be the last, because of difficulties in raising the £35,000 needed to stage the event.

A council spokesman said it was ‘probably too early to say’ whether the folk festival will take place next year. A second meeting will be organised soon to see how many volunteers will commit to the project.

“A number of ideas were put forward but the general consensus was that they wanted a festival to continue with a view to developing a more family-friendly, community-based, voluntary-led festival,” he said.

“All agreed it should be a self-funding event and to continue with folk and arts at its roots. And to have a greater emphasis on engaging residents, young people and local businesses.

“The overarching outcome was that there is strong support for continuing the festival but with a slightly changed focus in places, and there are people willing to make that happen.”

East Dorset District Council has pledged £14,000 towards next year’s costs – the same as 2012.