CHIPPENHAM’S hotels and B&Bs are full to the max for this weekend’s folk festival as 5,000 people are expected to descend on the town.

From the Angel and the Bear in Chippenham's Market Place to the Jolly Huntsman in Kington Langley, there is no room left at the inn during the popular festival, which opens for the 44th time tomorrow and runs until Monday.

Monkton Park and the Westmead playing fields will be full of up to 800 caravans and as many tents.

Accommodation is so scarce, families have come forward to offer up their own homes to house the performers.

Festival organiser Bob Berry said: “We have 48 morris sides coming, with up to 40 people in each. That’s a lot of people needing beds. We’ve got people staying as far away as Marlborough.

"The problem we have is as the festival ends they'll already be full for 2016, as people book the same rooms for next time.

“We have some B&B owners giving up private rooms, maybe their son’s who is away at university. We have a really smashing bunch of people in Chippenham; it’s splendid how they help us out.”

Tracey Smith, the festival’s accommodation officer, has the unenviable responsibility of finding beds for each of this year’s 256 artists.

She said: “I’ve just about covered everybody so far but we have no spares. We have about 15 family homes we use and are constantly trying to find more.”

Michael and Angela Sammes of Baydons Lane, who are retired, have been putting up artists for nearly 10 years and have donated all the income to charity.

Mrs Sammes said: “I go to church at St Andrew’s and we’re always trying to raise money for the roof. We live in the middle of town so I thought, if we open our home that is money that can help.

“I don’t mind doing it, I’ve met some lovely, lovely people.”

The biggest venue of the weekend will be the Big Top in River Island Park. On the Saturday this will see a re-working of the classic 1977 double LP The Tale of Ale, which tells the story of the English and their beer. The 6.30pm performance costs £12 and features Keith Kendrick, Sylvia Needham, Doug Eunson, Sarah Matthews, Oli Matthews, Pete Bullock, Roger Warren and John Titford.

Monday’s Big Top concert is a folk opera by Mick Ryan, A Day’s Work another Harvest, which uses original songs, spoken verse, monologue, dialogue and movement to examine the themes of peace, war, love, hate, courage and cowardice in a story about farm labourers.