First day of Bolton Food and Drink Festival cancelled after storm

Sarah Aspden, a stallholder and organiser said she was called this morning to be told many of the stands on Newport Road had been damaged.

“I told the others the devastating news, I didn’t think it would be as bad it was”, she said.

“I’ve been sat making stock for weeks and weeks, and I don’t do markets in August in the build up to this,” Ms Wolstencroft told BBC Radio Manchester.

“We’ve just got rally around and look after each other.”

A spokeswoman for Bolton Council said efforts were underway to get “as much of the festival site as possible” ready for Saturday.

The decision to postpone was “not taken lightly”, but the safety of all involved was the council’s “top priority”, she added.

It is not the start organisers of the festival, billed as the “largest of its kind in the UK”, had wanted.

But organisers are hoping to build on the success of last year’s event which attracted more than half a million people.

The festival is centred on Victoria Square outside Bolton Town Hall, with two stages set for live music alongside the hundreds of market stalls.