THE scale and success of this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival has been praised by festival chairman, Peter Arscott.

Figures regarding actual ticket sales and attendance are still to be released, but Mr Arscott said: "Anecdotally, I'd say audience numbers were on a par with last year, despite the heat and the World Cup, and there was certainly more coverage in the media.

"We've got to the stage after 22 years where people associate Ledbury with poetry; and I was very pleased with volunteer input."

In total there were 64 volunteer stewards putting in 350 hours of work; and 33 event managers had 113 events to manage.

Five volunteer drivers, between them, clocked up 444 miles, helping to transport poets to and from events, especially from Ledbury Station.

In addition, the festival was able to offer 350 hours of hospitality for performers and guests, and accommodation was found for 179 people, mainly performers and their partners.

Mr Arscott said: "Benjamin Zephaniah, Jackie Kay and Wendy Cope all gave us what we wanted: insight, revelation and powerful language.

"Our Poet-in-Residence, Zaffar Kunial, an early Ledbury Competition winner, was a revelation, and we were captivated by our American visitors, Mark Doty, Wendy Howe and Jericho Brown.

"The Festival this year became an international meeting point for writers from Croatia, Poland, Ukraine, France and Colombia, but we also enjoyed local input thanks to fabulous weather for the Town party where Kurly McGeachie's Hip Hop Shakespeare was a hit, as was the spontaneous Flamenco by Ester Rusueño Palomares, our Festival intern from Merida, Spain, who treated the audience to some passionate dancing, in contrast to the excellent cool jazz performed by the Ludlow Collective."

Mr Arscott added: "This year was another memorable festival, and we are already planning next year's."

If the 2018 festival matched the record-breaking 2017 festival, which is still to be confirmed, the ten day event must have attracted around 15,000 people.

Ticket sales for the 2017 festival were logged as 5,600.