Ludlow Castle ready for four-day pop festival

The walls of the 11th Century Ludlow Castle were built for the era of William the Conqueror, but this week they will ring to some of the biggest names in pop.

It has become a popular destination for events such as the town's food and fringe festivals.

But this week, locals are gearing up for some music legends they would normally have to travel to Birmingham or Manchester to see.

"It's one thing grooving to Chic, but in a castle too?" The Hughes family said.

"We bought tickets for the whole family. Priceless."

Within the Walls, at Ludlow Castle, starts with Rag'n'Bone Man on Thursday night followed by Kaiser Chiefs on Friday. Nile Rogers and Chic play on Saturday and Bastille round it off on Sunday.

Warwick Castle is also hosting a Within the Walls gig, which started with Bastille on Wednesday.

Andy Smith from FutureSound, which organised the event, said it had never done anything like this before.

"We were pretty keen on doing something different and unique, a lot of shows are stuck in a field and we wanted to do something a bit different for the customer," Mr Smith said.

Mr Smith said the first show at Warwick Castle went well.

"The castle was all lit up and as customers were leaving they were saying what an amazing show it was," he said.

Despite the challenges of getting staging inside castle walls originally designed to keep people out, Mr Smith said this was a "long-term project".

"Our managing director Colin [Oliver] is from Ludlow and that's how it all came about... we wanted to give something back to Ludlow," Mr Smith said.

Jodie Deakin, from Ludlow Chamber of Trade, said it would have a "phenomenal" impact on the town, with local accommodation fully booked.

"Those people are going to be streaming past our businesses, they are going to be grabbing food, they'll be grabbing drink, they'll hopefully be having a browse through our independent shops, so it is nothing but good for our town," she said.

The town has been preparing extra hard for this event, as "nothing like this has happened before".

Jane Vaughn has run The Queens pub with her husband Timothy for 25 years and said the town was normally used to "different sort of events".

"We haven't had such prominent bands coming to Ludlow, it is usually Shakespeare," Mrs Vaughn said.

"We are really excited, we have had to adapt our business," she added.

Mrs Vaughn said the pub and restaurant had changed it service times so food could be served from 12:00 until 18:00 BST.

Many customers have been calling ahead to the pub, Mrs Vaughn said, with all four days fully booked.

"Our business is the other end of town, so I am hoping we catch people having drinks at the bar on their way to the concert too," she said.

After what Mrs Vaughn predicts will be a busy day on Friday, she said she would run down to the castle after her shift to watch Kaiser Chiefs play.

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