Time running out for band contest

WE need you . . . Enid Firth and Bill Cullen lead the campaign to keep Lees Whit Friday Band Contest going

Last-gasp plea for volunteers to save event

A LAST-DITCH att-empt to save the Lees Whit Friday Band Contest has been launched by organisers who are desperate for people to lend a hand.

The committee is now on countdown to the celebration and has started planning this year’s event — due to take place on June 17.

But with a lack of interest from volunteers, committee numbers dwindling and the effects of the recession taking its toll, it is feared there won’t be much cause for jubilation this year.

Councillor and contest organiser Valerie Sedgwick made an appeal in the Chronicle in January, which prompted two volunteers to come forward.

Numbers, however, are still low and she is now resorting to roping in as many family members as possible to ensure the event doesn’t collapse.

She said: “People want to see these events but it is tough getting people to contribute.

“Yet people would be up in arms if it went. It’s a tradition that we are slowly losing.

“We’re planning now for this year but we need a raft of people to help out on the day.”

The contest has attracted up to 50 bands in the past.

Programme secretary Enid Firth says a lack of funds is also casting a shadow over the contest, and she has been struggling to gain sponsorship.

She said: “We’ve lost one of our major sponsors and there is just not the money available from local businesses.

“The bands are struggling and it can be expensive for them. If the prize money is not there bands may not come.

“It really is a vicious circle, we need to get money by selling the programmes but we need manpower to be out selling them on the day.”

“I keep thinking this is going to be the last one, but then I think no, we must go on!”

If you can support the contest in any way contact Enid Firth on 0161-626-7625 or Valerie Sedgwick on 0161-652-4507.