This weekend's Brownhills Canal Festival is going ahead and attracting huge interest

There will be plenty of narrowboats, floating traders, refreshments and entertainment at the the Wyrley and Essington Canal at Silver Street basin off Brownhills High Street.

The show is on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm and has seen trading pitches and charity stalls sold out.

Last year around 4,000 revellers soaked up sunny weather and displays at the event which has been running for two decades after being launched by residents to showcase the canal and attract narrowboat enthusiasts.

It is now organised by Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust which today confirmed that the show is going ahead and that the waterway is not being affected in any way by the sodium cyanide spillage several miles away at the Walsall Canal.

Festival Festival spokeswoman Christine Howles, of the trust, says: "There is huge interest in the event. It's going crazy on Facebook because people want to know if the show is going ahead due to the leak incident.

"It definitely is on as we've not been affected by the spillage at all. It is too far away on another section of the network and the problem hasn't extended as far as Brownhills. All the boats were either there already or travelled on an alternate route theough Wolverhampton and Wednesfield to get here.

"Only one vessel wasn't able to make it."

Attractions include 12 floating trading narrowboats, five historic and some privately owned narrowboats, and numerous gift, craft, jewellery, charity and food stalls.

There will also be a shire horse called 'Ebony', from Brockhole Shire; paddle boarding and canoeing sessions with Royal Sutton Coldfield Canoe Club; Staffordshire Portable Amateur Radio Club; and performances on Sunday by sea shanty group Lichfield Lighthouse Company and duo Simply Folk.

The festival was pioneered by Brownhills Local Committee about 20 years ago when it was held on the last weekend in June, however, the date was eventually changed to August following successive rainy summers.

It was taken over the Lichfield and Hatherton Canals Restoration Trust in 2021. For more details visit website lhcrt.org.uk/brownhills-canal-festival