'Every single place is heaving': organisers hail third Shrewsbury Loopfest 'best one yet'

Loopfest saw 250 grassroots acts take over 25 of the town's bars, pubs, public spaces and even the Shrewsbury Castle.

The three-day festival, which returned to Shrewsbury on Friday, saw every venues taking part 'heaving', organisers said.

Jamie Smith, who has been putting on the event for the last three years, hailed Loopfest 2024 as 'the best yet'.

“It has been amazing,” he said. “We've have been blessed with the beautiful weather and people are flocking to see the bands. The Castle is rammed. Every single place is heaving. Everyone has come out to support grassroots music, which is so great.

"This has been the best Loopfest yet without a doubt – the town is buzzing."

He said the festival was a mix of free gigs in various venues around the town and ticketed events that were taking place at Shrewsbury Castle, including big name acts such as Sunderland's the Futureheads and London's Nubiyan Twist and Beardyman.

The festival was granted a premises license allowing it to increase the capacity at Shrewsbury Castle from 500 to 750 people for the festival.

But there were plenty of local bands to see in Shrewsbury at the weekend too.

“I spent two months going through around 2,500 applications to get to the 250 bands that took part, and it almost took forever,” said Jamie. “But the idea was to curate acts that were suitable for the venues.

“We are all grassroots musicians and we started Loopfest to support acts locally and to get people to come into town ad support venues as well as discover some great original artists.

“It can be really exciting to come to events like this when you get to see these bands in small venues, as one day they may be become huge artists – you never know."

Loopfest is expected to return in May 2025.