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Organisers of the Chippenham Folk Festival are looking forward to drawing in large crowds of young people during this weekend's celebrations with more events than ever.

Chippenham Folk Festival has been able to organise its annual children's festival in two marquees at Island Park with the support of one of its main sponsors Wavin.

Bob Berry, the festival organiser said: "We are delighted that Wavin Plastics has agreed to support the Folk Festival again this year. Their particular interest in both the children's festival and the community area will enable us to encourage a real community spirit throughout the weekend."

The children's festival will also include a youth area so that children of all ages will have something to do during the weekend.

Wavin has helped make a variety of events possibly through their donations. The company has supported the festival for nearly a decade.

Anne Shaw, a member of Wavin's Community Relations Team said: "We love the Folk Festival's determination to create a truly varied event for the people of Chippenham, involving the young and not-so-young. We are once again delighted to lend our support".

Most of the events available to children will centre around Island Park and include different workshops with musicians and dancers.

There will be arena displays at Island Park throughout the weekend with many different performances from different musicians and a whole host of dancers to get the crowd going.

Schools around Chippenham are also getting involved in the bank holiday celebrations on Friday with a number of creative dance workshops. The workshops will happen on the morning and will lead up to a huge dance session involving each of the schools. They will display what they have learnt about country music.

Liz Jones, 50, the schools co-ordinator for the festival is really proud of the effort the children put into the workshops each year.

She said: " There will be three hundred children taking part in the dance workshops from schools around the town.

"It's a great sense of achievement for both me and the children, I think, to see them taking part in something they wouldn't normally do and because the workshops can be really exhausting for some children.

"I think the best part of the day for me is seeing all of the children come together in the afternoon to perform the skills they have learnt."

The primary schools who will put their skills to the test Friday are Stanton St Quentin, Frogwell, who are closed on Friday, Lacock primary school, Monkton Park, Ivy Lane and Kings Lodge.

There will be two parades on the Saturday and on Monday, there is expected to be a large turn out of both dancing groups and on-lookers.

Mr Berry said: "I think the parades are a great part of the festival as it gives the dance groups who come to Chippenham, a chance to show off their talents.

"There should be around 20 Morris teams at the parades with 15 members in each team, so there will be a lot of people there.

"We are also hoping for a good turn out from spectators at the parades, as in previous years, weather permitting."

The first parade is on Saturday starting on the High Street at 2pm and will finish up at Island Park.

The parade on Monday will be the same as on Saturday and on both days the teams will be led by the Rose and Castle North West team.

The folk festival has also attracted more top musicians for every audience. Some of the top names include Solas, Kerr Fagan, Harbron and Tanglefoot.

They will be playing at concerts from Monday to Friday for large audiences at the Olympiad.

For dancers there are plenty of opportunities for people to take part in dance workshops during the weekend including ceilidhs, a Scottish country-dance at the sports hall and aqueilidhs where people can dance in water at the Olympiad pool on Saturday evening.

The full programme of events and venues, including ticket information, can be found at: www.chippfolk.co.uk

4:09pm Tuesday 20th May 2008

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