ONCE again a small band of hard working volunteers have produced one of the biggest and most successful events in the county all with very little support from the town which benefits the most.

Chippenham Folk Festival is, quite rightly, regarded as one of the highlights of the folk calendar, attracting some of the biggest acts in the country and from across Europe.

It brings tens of thousands of visitors to Chippenham and such is its impact on the town and the benefits to businesses there, you would expect firms and councils to be rushing to support it.

But you would be wrong. Each year Bob Berry and his volunteer colleagues give up their time to organise acts, liaise with police, fire and ambulance services and man the ticket booths to ensure the smooth running of the festival.

All of this is done with hardly a penny in sponsorship from the town.

Only Wavin comes forward with vital support to ensure the festival goes ahead.

Mr Berry spends a great deal of time writing to firms in the town to appeal for sponsorship but always meets with the same blank refusals.

Instead, the volunteers have to make the books balance with ticket sales and donations from the visitors who enjoy the four-day festival and the free entertainments laid on.

It is high time firms contributed to the event which brings in so much extra revenue to the town. Chippenham's pubs, hotels and shops do wonderfully well out of the festival, yet they do little or nothing in return to support it.

North Wiltshire District Council spends two years and a great deal of our money organising a festival that is not a patch on the folk festival.

It would do well to learn from the folk festival's success and maybe even join forces to provide something for a wider audience.

Chippenham must learn to love and support the folk festival before it finds another town that will.