PLANS are being set in motion for Worcester to have a spectacular annual festival.

Chris Jaeger, director of the city's Huntingdon Hall, believes there is enough going on in the city to warrant a yearly event. "At present, there is a festival every three years with the Three Choirs and a huge fringe festival springs up around it every year it's in Worcester," he said.

Mr Jaeger said the city had played host to a number of one-off festivals, such as the Millennium and XS 2002 over Jubilee weekend.

But he complained their success was never followed up.

"There are one-off events where everyone puts in a great deal of work and lessons are learned. But these lessons aren't put into further use because the events don't happen again," he said.

The Worcester Festival would be held annually towards the end of August and would run alongside the Three Choirs Festival when Worcester hosted it.

Two-week festival

"The idea is for a two-week festival," said Mr Jaeger.

"Ideally, it would culminate with something spectacular on the Bank Holiday.

"Three years ago, we had the spectacular British Waterways Festival here. They said they wanted to return."

Mr Jaeger said the festival would not just be about music, drama and the arts. It would also include sporting and children's events.

"The role of Huntingdon Hall would be to act as an umbrella for the organisation, and as a box office."

He said one bonus of a unified festival would be that smaller events, springing up as part of the fringe, could be advertised in brochures for the bigger event.

"It'll be good for hotels and restaurants because of the tourists it would attract," Mr Jaeger said.

"But it will also be good for the people of Worcester."

An open meeting is due to be held tonight at Huntingdon Hall, at 7pm, to discuss how the festival would work.

Representatives from radio stations, city and county councils, Worcester Arts Workshop, local drama groups, Dancefest, the Swan Theatre, Bevere Vivis Gallery, The Commandery, Worcester Cathedral, county churches and libraries have been invited.

Mr Jaeger said he hoped the meeting would generate ideas so plans could be announced after this year's Three Choirs Festival.

"Nothing's set in stone yet. But it's going to happen," he said.