LEDBURY Poetry Festival organisers are celebrating a coming of age festival that ticked all the boxes in terms of record ticket sales and visitor numbers.

The Ledbury Celebration, on the last day of the festival, attracted up to to 10,000 people to the High Street, for live music, poetry and food stalls.

The Celebration, which is set to be repeated next year, was organised as a High Street event to mark the 21st anniversary of the festival and the 400th anniversary of Ledbury's iconic building, the Market House.

Ticket sales at this year's festival broke records, with full houses for star celebrity attractions such as Richard Dawkins and Hugh Dennis.

Other big name at this year's festival included the comedian Sean Hughes; the former Lib Dem leader, Paddy Ashdown and leading poet Simon Armitage.

In total, 5600 tickets were sold, slightly up on last year's total, which was the previous record breaker.

But with almost 90 events in the programme, many of them free, Poetry Festival manager, Philippa Slinger says ticket sales alone do not reflect the total number of people who attended the this year.

She said: "We can say it was our biggest festival ever, to mark our 21st anniversary, and this was reflected in our ticket sales.

"We also ran a lot of events, and a lot of free events too, and then there was the enormous town party."

Ms Slinger estimated attendance at the Ledbury Celebration in the town centre as anything between 6000 and 10,000 people.

She added: "This year's festival was a success story; definitely the most successful so far in terms of size, scope and free events."