THE man who has transformed Upton Blues Festival has reached the finals of a national competition to find a tourism superstar.

Oliver Carpenter, chairman of the event's main committee, has been nominated in the Tourism Superstar campaign run by VisitEngland in partnership with The Daily Mirror and Mirror Online. During his five years as chairman, the festival has doubled its attendance to 20,000, doubled weekend performances to 120 acts, commissioned new music and now makes a contribution of more than £800,000 to the local economy, as well as supporting good causes in the local area.

Mr Carpenter's nomination was put forward by Visit Worcestershire, the local destination management organisation, due to his notable achievements with the Upton Blues Festival, along with his creation of Blues at the Fold at Bransford, near Worcester and the Jinney Ring Blues Festival at Hanbury, near Droitwich.

Ruth Thomas, tourism membership executive of Visit Worcestershire, said: “Oliver is an inspiration to all. His hard work, dedication and desire to make the Upton Blues Festival a high quality, professional and well regarded event has made it a real attraction that draws people to Worcestershire from across the UK and beyond.”

Mr Carpenter, who runs Jigsaw Marketing in Worcester, added: "It is remarkable that an event the size of Upton Blues Festival can be put on and grown by a committee of 10 volunteers and it is an event I am inordinately proud of being involved in. This is a festival much loved by its audience, whether visiting for the weekend or just popping along for the day. Free to enter, financially successful with no public funding or major sponsorship and now in a position to contribute funding to local projects and schools programmes, the festival has grown and evolved into the most innovative blues festival in the country.”

Along the way the event has won a number of awards, including Festival of the Year 2015 in the British Blues Awards and Best Festival and Event in the Visit Worcestershire Awards for Excellence 2014.

Last year, Angela Tidmarsh, tourism officer for Wychavon District Council was nominated by Visit Worcestershire and came second in the national competition. This year’s winner will be announced during English Tourism Week 2016 which runs from March 5-13, 2016.