THE traditions of Knutsford Royal May Day festival could be threatened after mounting costs has left the committee concerned for the future.

The annual festival, which is now in its 152nd year, costs around £35,000 to run which includes traffic management costs of £8,000.

After a £5,000 drop in donations last year, the committee is now calling on residents and business to help out in ‘anyway they can’ by donating money or hosting fundraisers so that the event can continue to run in the same way.

Eileen Podmore, joint secretary on the Royal May Day committee, said: “We need financing. If it costs us £35,000 to put on, that is a lot of money to raise. Every year it gets more expensive and we are trying to maintain this May Day festival without a lot of help.

"The crown alone costs around £800.

“We do have enough funds to fund this year’s festival. We probably have enough to fund a couple more as things stand at the moment. But if we keep losing a large amount of money things will have to get cut and cut again.”

Eileen has been on the committee for around 40 years and has raised concerns that although the festival will continue, the committee will not be able to maintain the same scale and standard without additional funding.

“If we get some money towards it it will help tremendously,” she added. “But without it, it will threaten the future of the festival as it is now.

“Yes it can be scaled down to suit what money is available but it has been the same for 152 years. It is us to us not to let it go downhill.

“We cannot carry on losing £6,000 a year.”

At this year’s annual meeting, draft accounts presented showed a loss of £5600, this despite the costs of the Festival having been reduced by £6784 from the previous year.

The main reason for the deficit was the fact that donations were down by £5,400.

“This is a children’s festival, there are more than 700 children involved each year.” added Eileen. “It brings people into the town for the whole day, even the whole weekend. They stay for the night and they go to the restaurants. It’s great for the town.

“We are just appealing for people to make some money by even just doing a coffee morning with friends. All the little things add up. If lots of people raised small amounts. It doesn’t matter how much we just really need support from local businesses and residents.”