THOUSANDS of folk fans flocked to Chippenham for a bank holiday weekend extravaganza.

The 31st annual Chippenham Folk Festival combined the usual mix of dance, music, concerts and workshops with folk theatre and jubilee celebrations.

Among the hundreds of performers taking part was organiser Bob Berry, who played at the festival for the first time in 15 years.

Mr Berry could not resist the chance to play at The Cause, the new music centre in the old Methodist Church on the Causeway.

His band, Tinkers Bag, performed their latest show, A Wiltshire Wedding, in the centre's auditorium on Sunday afternoon.

"Everybody who has been in there has said it is the best venue they could possibly imagine," said Mr Berry.

"It was the first time I've played at the festival in 15 years and it was wonderful."

The new venue was also used by Hen Party for the world premiere of their show, The Heart Gallery, which uses songs, prose, poetry and music to tell a story.

Among the other performances was the TimeNTide Theatre Group with To Win the Day, a song cycle telling the story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs.

Mr Berry said the performances were a great hit and helped to draw crowds to venues throughout the town.

There was disappointment for many folk fans, however, as a mystery infection dubbed "folk flu" put several headline acts out of action.

There were sick notes from Roy Clinging and married duo Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, but festival friend John Kirkpatrick came to the rescue and gave festival go-ers an unexpected musical treat.

Mr Berry said: "He's an old favourite at the festival and we are really grateful that he dropped in at the last minute to stand in."

For the first time a new youth festival ran alongside the main event with traditional music, dance and related folk arts for the 11 to 20 year old age group.

The Bridge Centre was renamed The Hub for the weekend with the chance to take part in workshops about concert and celidh bands, dance and folk theatre from youth group Pulse.

Mr Berry said: "We wanted young people to get together to learn about what we are doing."

Wiltshire youngsters took part thanks to a subsidy from principal event sponsor Wavin Plastics and The Chippenham Borough Lands Charity.