Coronavirus: Ludlow Food Festival must raise £40k 'or close'

The food festival has been held in Ludlow since 1995

A food festival has to raise £40,000 by December otherwise organisers have said it will be forced to close.

Ludlow Food Festival, which has been running in Shropshire since 1995, regularly attracts about 20,000 visitors to the town.

The coronavirus pandemic has led organisers to move this year's online from Friday to Sunday.

Events manager Hannah James said if they did not raise the money in three months "we will close".

She said festival organisers were running on reserves and furlough money at the moment and lost funds on deposits for their cancelled spring festival earlier in the year.

"We have until December to raise some money and then we will know about next year. What happens if we don't raise it is we will close. This is very much save the festival," she said.

"We have been overwhelmed by the support and offers of help, donations and so on."

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A Friends of Ludlow Food Festival project has been set up which will offer customers discounts in 2021 and other benefits in return for a donation.

The food festival has been moved online this year due to the coronavirus pandemic

Visitors to the weekend's virtual festival have also been asked to make a donation instead of the normal entrance ticket.

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Chef Adam Purnell, known as Shropshire Lad, will be doing live online demonstrations, organisers said, and there will also be master classes on cooking over Kadai fire bowls.

Adam Purnell will be doing live demonstrations as part of this year's virtual food festival