IN reply to Mike Braun's letter (Gazette, May 29) I would like to thank him for his kind words and try to put a few statistics and comments forward to qualify his remarks from the Chippenham Folk Festival organisation's point of view.

It is not the intention to make the festival bigger, as implied in your headlines, but to link the festival even more with the local community and in particular the young people of the area.

This is already being achieved to a certain degree with up to 350 schoolchildren participating in traditional arts throughout the Friday before the weekend.

If we are to expand it will be in this area.

The organising team puts in a combined total of 4,886 hours each year to pull together the festival, and all voluntarily.

All of this work is done because we are passionate about our English heritage, music and dance in the same way as the previous director Dick Stanger and his staff have done for the past 32years.

In a recent study by the Arts Council of England it was found that folk festivals contribute a vast amount of money into their host towns totalling over £77million and Chippenham is no exception.

In our own studies it was found that Chippenham and the surrounding area benefits from up to £250,000 per annum, mostly on the weekend itself.

Some of the establishments throughout the town, particularly those in which we have venues, are very supportive and we thank them for that.

Others surely must make quite a profit from the work that we do and offer no share in their good fortune. We have a good sponsorship scheme for those that would like to assist.

As has been mentioned in recent news reports we are not only looking for businesses etc. to offer financial assistance but to perhaps provide some services and or materials to assist the extremely hard work that the festival team does.

A particular note of thanks should go to our sponsors Wavin Plastics Ltd, The Borough Lands Charity, and the Rotary Club of Chippenham which runs the Monday Street Fair on behalf of the festival, profits from which are shared with other organisations and charities in the town.

In conclusion, on behalf of the festival team, I would like to thank all those that made the 2003 folk festival such a memorable and highly enjoyable event. Now we start again for 2004.

Bob Berry

Chippenham Folk

Festival Association