A SUSTAINABLE business plan is under discussion in a bid to ensure the future of the biennial River Wye Festival.

The event, which took place at riverside locations from Hereford to Chepstow in 2014, 2016 and 2018 is struggling to secure funding for 2020, despite winning the national Bowland Award last summer, which recognises a best project in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

And a report to councillors on the Wye Valley AONB’s joint advisory committee proposes a five-year business plan is needed to ensure it continues.

The two-week long May event, which includes music, parades and community workshops, has featured events in Ross-on-Wye, Lydbrook, Symonds Yat, Monmouth, Redbrook, Llandogo, Tintern, Monmouth and Chepstow and has attratcted up to 20,000 people.

But so far attempts to secure develpment funding from the Arts Council of Wales and Arts Council England for next year have failed, putting its future under threat.

The report says: "There has been widespread support and encouragement for the Wye Valley River Festival to continue after the original three biennial festivals.

"The general feeling is that the momentum and inspiration generated by the festivals to date should not be lost at this stage.

"However, as previously recognised, the current management, governance and funding of the three festivals is not a sustainable model that can be carried forward indefinitely.

"By staging magnificent outdoor arts events that captivate and engage, the festival has celebrated and interpreted the River Wye, the countryside and its communities, using the arts to develop thinking, imagination and understanding, building new audiences and strengthening the vital role that culture plays in the future development and ’place making’ of this AONB," the report adds.