LEDBURY Poetry Festival opens this Friday and the weather looks set to shine on another sell-out success for the organisers.

Even before the off, the festival was reporting there were no more tickets to be had for a number of major attractions including the big-name poet, Benjamin Zephaniah and the Monty Python star, Michael Palin.

A number of workshops have also sold out, including those with poets Linda Gregerson; Liz Berry, Zaffar Kunial, Kim Moore and Sinead Morrissey.

Other events which have sold out include Reading the Romantics; The Blasket Island's Writers and Poets and Found Voices with Phillippa Slinger.

Aside from buying up tickets, the community has been showing support in other ways.

Festival manager, Phillippa Slinger, had special encouragement for the shop window displays.

She said: "The shops are free to create their own displays if they wish and in previous years the bar has been set very high with creativeness and inventiveness, with many pictures being sent around the globe on social media."

This year, many local businesses, including Well Worth It in The Homend, have pulled out all the stops to help create a big Ledbury Poetry Festival welcome to locals and visitors alike.

And shop windows will not be the only themed artwork on display.

Phillippa added: "Hundreds of participants of festival workshops across the county have been creating poetry and artwork in response to the theme of a Poetry Paradise Garden.

In this exhibition, in the Panelled Room of the Master's House, are special paintings and poems from many groups in the county, including a special partnership between Ledbury Poetry Festival and Herefordshire MIND mental health charity, celebrating its 40 year anniversary.

"Catch this special exhibition for the ten days of the festival only."

Tickets and further details about the Ledbury Poetry Festival, which runs from June 29 to July 8, at: https://www.poetry-festival.co.uk/