THE sun shone on Middlewich for the 27th annual Folk and Boat Festival at the weekend.

Thousands of visitors flocked to the town for a range of entertainment, starting with Friday night’s concert on Market Field with headliners Lightning Seeds.

The event has been deemed a ‘major success’ by festival organiser Dave Thompson, who praised the work done by volunteers.

Dave said: “We could not have asked for a better weekend.

“We finally had the weather that the festival deserved and people from all over came out to make the most of what was a fantastic event.

“We made more money behind the bar on Friday night than we did for the entire festival in 2016, so credit has to be given to the volunteers who worked tirelessly to help.

“Everyone involved deserves recognition, but Middlewich Round Table who helped us with the bar and Middlewich Scouts who stewarded the camp site must have a special mention.”

The Friday night main stage saw The Luka State, Plastic, Shakedown Stockholm and Lightning Seeds all perform to a capacity 1,500-strong crowd.

Saturday saw a mixture of performances from Circus Raj to The Sundowners with the FAB parade also taking place in the town centre.

Sunday then saw seven acts take to the stage before Molotov Cocktail, led by actress Natalie Tena, brought the weekend to a close Nine Middlewich pubs played host as fringe venues during the festival, holding a variety of performers, quizzes and open mic events.

Dave said: “The fringe venues must also get recognition for their work over the course of the weekend.

“They ran from the Big Lock to the King’s Lock.

“When I was walking through at certain points of the day, all of the venues were standing room only.

“For them all to take part shows just what a special place Middlewich is.”

This was also the first year that FAB took place without the Rose Fete, due to the latter going solo and holding its own event earlier in the year.

Dave added: “It was a big difference running the festival without the Rose Fete this year, but it was great to have the retinue there as part of the parade.

“In their place we had the Circus Raj, who excited me from the moment they were booked, and it was just great to see the festival try different things this year.”