THE annual Winsford Salt Fair made a step up this year to officially include the Saturday, and it worked out a treat according to main organiser, Cllr Steve Smith.

The fair has now been running for six years, steadily growing bigger each year.

The Salt Fair committee made the decision to officially include Saturday as part of the fair this time, starting on Wednesday and finishing on Sunday.

Crowds turned out in force over the five-day event, which has grown more popular each year, and Cllr Smith, member of Winsford Town Council and former Winsford mayor, was delighted to see that Saturday drew the biggest crowd.

Cllr Smith said: “Saturday was wonderful. It was the first time we’ve included the Saturday and I was panicking about it to be honest, but the weather was nice and it was great to see so many people turn out. There were people coming from all over to enjoy the event.”

The event included the crowning of the new Salt Queen, Amy Morton, a narrowboat parade from the marina, a regatta, fun fair, dancing, live music, and live theatre performances from the popular Mikron Theatre Company.

Mindful not to stand still and make the fair bigger and better each year, Steve is already looking at ways to improve next year.

He added: “We have got to have the wash-up meeting with the committee and discuss what went well and what we’d like to improve on, but personally, I think there are three main areas we can improve on next year.

“I think we need to focus a lot more on the history and heritage, because that is essentially what the fair is celebrating. I also think we need to bring a lot of the events we have closer to the town centre.

“We couldn’t have much in the town centre this year because we didn’t know where the demolition was going to be up to, but next year we can do that.

“Finally, I think it may be time to introduce camping, but I would love to hear from the public on what they think about that. We’ve discussed for a while, but we wanted the fair to grow a bit before we introduced camping – but maybe next year is the right time for that to come in.”