AN ambitious plan to rejuvenate the riverside in Pershore has sounded the last post for a brass festival that has been drawing more than 1,000 visitors to the town for the last 15 years.

Organisers of Pershore Midsummer Brass are angry that the 2004 staging of the event has had to be the last after Wychavon District Council made a decision to turn one of the festival's biggest venues into a car park.

Festival director Gordon Hartley-Bennett, who launched Pershore Midsummer Brass in 1989, said the Angel Inn garden accommodated more than 1,000 people and was the setting for a lighter programme of music to the more serious concerts in Pershore Abbey.

"The event has become a major date in the calendar of the brass band world and a favourite event among the bands themselves because of its unique non-competitive format," he said.

"I am fairly devastated that we have had to make the decision that this year's festival would be the last, but after several weeks of consideration, we could not come up with a suitable alternative venue.

"It is a measure of its success that the event cannot be compromised as any reduction, which the loss of this major venue represents, would result in a pale reflection of the festival as it was."

Phil Merrick, head of community services at Wychavon District Council, said there had been an ambition for quite some time to extend an existing road to give rear access to High Street premises and open up the riverside.

"The town has got a good opportunity to turn back time and make use of its links between the High Street and river and this will be an all-year round attraction," he said.

"We don't want to lose the brass festival but it shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of what would be a great benefit to traders. Overall, the benefits of this scheme for local tourism will be greater than the one event."