THE figures are still to be finalised and announced, but this year's Ledbury Poetry Festival is already being hailed as a record breaker, in terms to ticket sales and visitor numbers.

And Festival organisers say a large part of the success is down to community support.

Ticket sales are likely to easily top 5000, the previous record, and total visitor numbers will be higher, because many events are free, such as the Alice in Wonderland-themed family events in the Walled Garden.

The Festival's artistic director, Chloe Garner said: "We have definitely broken all records, although we are still compiling all the statistics. It has been an exceptional year.

"The Ledbury community has really supported us this year and they have really got behind the Festival."

At total of 14 events sold out even before the Festival opened.

Ms Garner said she was delighted to see so many international poets in town this year.

She said: "I love the fact that the town sudden becomes international."

This year the Festival showed its support for the Versopolis project, which throws the spotlight on international poets who may or may not be very well known in the UK.

Visitors to several events were given free poetry books of international poetry, with parallel translations, to help the works reach a wider audience.

Poets whose translated works were being given away included Ida Linde of Sweden; the Slovak poet, Maria Ferencuhova; Gjoko Zdraveski of Macedonia; Aivaras Veiknys of Lithuania and the Flemish poet, Maud Vanhauwaert.

Popular sell-out events included a Poetry and Belief discussion with the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, and Desert Island Poems sessions with the Lib Dem Grandee, Shirley Williams and the Monty Python star and travel journalist, Michael Palin.