MIDDLEWICH Folk and Boat Festival is making changes to help boost local businesses and organisations as they recover from the coronavirus crisis.

THE 30th anniversary event has been rescheduled from Friday, September 25 to Sunday, September 27.

The fringe venue registration fee has been slashed from £250 to £100, the first reduction in eight years.

Organisers hope this will make participation more feasible for the town’s pubs after a particularly difficult past few months

This fee goes towards marketing costs and the production of the free festival guide. Middlewich Town Council is dedicated to supporting local businesses and is confident the income lost through this change can be balanced out by the income from Saturday night’s ticketed concert.

Saturday's market on Wheelock Street has been extended to Sunday to give businesses on the street as much support and footfall as possible over the festival weekend. This is dependent on retailer interest.

To give teachers, parents and pupils a chance to raise funds, all Middlewich schools' parent teacher associations can have a free stall at the festival either on Wheelock Street or on Civic Way car park.

The council hopes this will help with fundraising and encourage schools to become more involved with the festival.

A spokesman for Middlewich Town Council said: "Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival was created in 1990 as a community event and in introducing this new support, we can ensure the festival remains at the heart of our community as we celebrate the 30th anniversary.

"2020 has been a very trying time for us all so far and we hope the new festival dates from September 25-27 provide something to look forward to for our town and that these updates do provide some relief for our local businesses."

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Friday night's main stage headliners are Scouting for Girls supported by The Moondogz.

Saturday night is an 80s party with China Crisis, Electro 80s.

Sunday night’s free concert will see Dave Finnegan’s Commitments headline alongside Old Time Sailors and Thrill Collins.

Special guests on Friday and Saturday are to be announced.

Tickets for main stage concerts are now back on sale.

Middlewich residents can now apply for discounted residents tickets on the festival ticket website https://www.middlewichfabfestival.co.uk/fab-tickets/