MONMOUTH FESTIVAL WINS MARKETING AWARDS

MONMOUTH'S annual nine-day free music festival has just won three prestigious gongs for last year's successful event.

The committee behind Monmouth Festival were awarded first prize for best 'Promotion Of Young People' and 'Below The Line Marketing Campaign' at the recent Adventa Awards ceremony for marketing and sustainable festivals during 2009.

The Monmouth Festival organisers were also highly commended for its green credentials, which recognises the festival committee's endeavour to make the festival as environmentally friendly as possible. This was largely achieved by undertaking recycling as much as possible and local sourcing policies.

The festival relies on a small army of volunteers each year to make the event happen, and the award for Best Promotion Of Young People recognises the invaluable contribution made by the next generation of participants who take part.

The marketing award was given for the innovative approach the festival committee took to the website. Last year the site was re-designed and optimised to appear at the top of the search engines by local company, MonmouthWeb.com, whose efforts enabled the Monmouth Festival website to be ranked in the top three Google positions throughout the year for people searching 'free music festivals 2009', which helped to attract record attendances for mid-week acts and swell the crowds at the weekends.

Monmouth Festival is a non-profit making organisation that is run by a group of local volunteers. The exciting festival is staged annually with the corporation of its loyal help sponsors, Monmouthshire County Council, Monmouth Town Council and all the volunteers who gave their time to make the festival possible

Adventa is a local partnership of public, private and community organisations which develops and manages the county's Rural Development Programme with a primary focus of providing support to enhance and strengthen Monmouthshire businesses.