IF you were amongst the record breaking 265,000-plus visitors who attended last weekend’s Food and Drink Festival, you will have experienced one of the biggest and most successful festivals in the country and we should all be justifiably proud of the town and this event.

This is especially so coming so soon after the dreadful article in The Guardian, a newspaper that I was frankly amazed could print something so outdated and wide of the mark.

Amongst all of the exciting activities over the four days was a team of volunteers that entertained you with music, information.

This was live at the festival and live on air broadcasting to over 25,000 listeners across Bolton and around the world online through the good works of your local community radio station 96.5 Bolton FM.

There were more than 45 of our volunteers involved, from technicians beavering away in the background as they do, interviewers catching up with the visiting celebrities, a camera team catching the moments throughout the weekend, announcers making sure everyone was in the right place at the right time and promoting those events taking place all over the town.

We also had a 'Street Team' meeting and greeting visitors to the festival and asking them about Bolton FM and were pleased, and a bit surprised, just how many people already listen to us at 96.5 FM or online at boltonfm.com

The feedback from all of the volunteers, whose ages ranged from nine to 74, was that that, whilst exhausted from four days of hard graft, they were thrilled that the council had allowed us to be a much bigger part of the event this year.

These columns are more often filled with moans about the council, so let’s have a big pat on the back this time and a loud well done to one and all.

Dr Andrew Dickson

Chairman Bolton FM