JULY’S Romsey Festival has been pronounced a success with events attracting a total attendance of more than 10,000 and tickets sales exceeding £50,000.

The statistics were revealed at a public meeting held on Tuesday when festival chairman Dick Hewett was re-elected to oversee 2017’s event.

Several changes were made for the 2014 festival which would be continued, said Mr Hewett. These included dropping the word ‘arts’ from the title, using more on line promotion and ticketing, and scaling down the brochure from a booklet to a fold-out leaflet.

The 2014 festival had encompassed a wider variety events including photography, bell ringing and cooking and for the first time had included the town’s summer carnival under its umbrella.

For the first time in its history, the festival organisers had conducted an in-depth customer survey and found that generally audience members and performers and exhibitors were very satisfied.

The survey showed that 20 per cent of the festival goers had come from beyond the Romsey area and that 63 per cent of those attending events were over 60 and only eight per cent were under 30.

On the age question, Mr Hewett told the Advertiser: “We have to think about this and is it an issue or not? Many of the events were held in the daytime when young people cannot attend and the over 60 age group is also the one with the disposable income.”

However, he said he’d like more young people to attend the festival and to that end it was hoped to include more contemporary music in the 2017 programme. Dance was another area which Mr Hewett said was under-represented in the festival.

Other improvements which could be made came in scheduling, said Mr Hewett.

“We need to avoid having similar events on at the same time,” he said “Also we had four events scheduled in the town centre on the night of the carnival bed race when the roads were closed.”

Tuesday’s meeting agreed that the next festival would be held in early July 2017 – the exact dates are to be confirmed soon.