Morris dancers take a break at a previous Faversham Hop Festival

by Lauren Fruen

Bosses of the Faversham Hop Festival have revealed they need to find £7,000 or the popular event will be cancelled.

The shock news comes after the organising committee failed to ask Faversham Town Council for help when councillors decided on their annual budget and grant allocations in January.

Now those in charge of the popular weekend, which is in its 24th year and attracts 50,000 visitors to the town each year, are pleading with businesses to help them raise the thousands needed to carry on.

They argue the festival pumps at least £250,000 into the local economy.

Fundraising co-ordinator Graham Martin said: "That's a lot of business for local traders, but we need £45,000 to £50,000 to run a safe, entertaining event of this size each year.

"Without financial surety this year we're finding it difficult to maintain interest from the volunteer workforce or attract local sponsors.

"For the sake of £7,000 this festival will fail in its 24th year and we will fail to achieve our dream of putting on an internationally renowned event from entirely local effort.

"The more visitors we attract, the more money ends up in local pockets."

At a meeting of the town council, councillors discussed the funding.

However, they felt they could not decide how much money they could give to festival organisers without first seeing the accounts from last year's event.

Mayor of Faversham David Simmons said: "I do not think we can consider the application without seeing the 2012 Hop Festival accounts.

"We want to support the event but cannot do so without seeing the accounts."

Councillors also admitted they did not have the full £7,000 needed to cover the shortfall in its grant allocation.

Mr Martin added: "This festival is unique because it is run by volunteers from the local community who want to make it truly free to the visiting public.

"We have plenty of initiatives to make it self-sustaining with a three-year plan to make it financially secure and able to generate a profit which we can donate back to local good causes as we are a not-for-profit company.

"The more business we can attract the lower the risk for each."