THE annual Rishton Festival, which was cancelled just days before it was due to be held tomorrow, has been saved at the last minute.

Organisers had to temporarily pull the plug on the family festival held at Norden High School, which has been running for 13 years, due to a ‘dramatic’ rise in insurance costs.

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But now resident group Switch On Rishton, which was behind the Christmas celebrations in the town, has saved the day by managing to bring down the costs to an ‘affordable’ level.

Organiser Cllr Ken Moss said he was “extremely thankful” to the Switch On group for helping the festival to go ahead.

He said: “This is an important festival that the people of Rishton thoroughly enjoy every year and I was very disappointed when we had to announce the cancellation.

“So to find out that we can now go ahead with it is brilliant news and I am truly grateful to all those at Switch On.”

The festival begins with a parade, which will start at the Station pub at 10.15am and finish at Norden High School at 11am.

Then the school will play host to a number of stalls, children’s entertainment and a beer tent for the afternoon.

More than 1,000 people attended the event last year and Cllr Clare Cleary said it would have been a huge shame to not have it on.

She said: “We are very happy that people have pulled together to save this event as it is traditional.

“If it wasn’t on it would’ve felt like something was really missing, people love to come to this festival.

“I think because this event has always been organised by two stalwarts and then handed to myself and Ken this year, I think we may have fallen a bit short and a couple of things were not falling into place.

“But I’m relieved that the community has rallied together and we can now go ahead with this.”

Cllr Moss and Cllr Cleary, as well as resident Jeff Scales, stepped in to organise this year’s event after Christine Hammerton and Malcolm Ward stepped down from their positions last year.