LEISURE chiefs have pulled the plug on Burnley National Blues Festival, after admitting defeat in their bid to compete with rival events.

Councillors will instead opt for a 'make 'em laugh' policy - part of a new programme of attractions to replace the country's oldest national blues event - and bring more visitors to the town.

The leisure committee decided in principle to drop the 11-year-old festival after hearing it swallows up a quarter of the Mechanics promotion budget and still loses about £20,000-a-year, drawing in mainly outside interest and subsidising tickets to the tune of £18 each.

Disappointed councillors likened the Easter event to Burnley FC, once a major national force in its field, but now outgunned by rich big players.

Councillors decided to look into developing a series of special weekend attractions - including a comedy weekend to get 'em rolling in the aisles in the mechanics.

The series will also include a Blues event, but nothing on the scale of the festival. Leisure officer Joe Balko, said the Blues Festival had only once broke even and that was when it received £5,000 sponsorship from a brewery. There was, he said, increasing competition from towns with big money to spend on blues.

Blues fan Coun Peter Kenyon said he found the report listing the festival's problems and decline 'painful reading.' The people who had established the festival were looked upon as heroe, because, like the soccer club, the event gave Burnley national status.

Now, he said, the festival had lost its pulling power and further massive spending to compete with other towns could not be justified.

Independent group leader Harry Brooks said: "It shows that Burnley cannot compete in the rarified atmosphere of national pre-eminence for any length of time."

New options which will be considered to draw in visitors also include a rock weekend, folk 'n' roots event and a weekend aimed at children becoming involved in creative events.

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