The organisers of Saltaire Festival are to apply for more funding to ensure next year's event is bigger success than ever.

Around 10,000 people flocked to the village last weekend for the finale of the ten-day festival which included a variety of drama, dance, theatre, circus and music events.

Now the team of volunteers which runs the festival is already thinking about next year's event.

Artistic director Helen Kemp said: "We are having a debriefing meeting next Monday and discussing what went right and what went wrong, then looking at what we want to do next year.

"We already have lots of ideas. The money we would be applying for would be for events during the festival. For example we are thinking of commissioning a play written especially for Salts Mill."

This year's festival attracted funding from Bradford Council and sponsorship from local businesses, but the extra money would mean the committee could be more inventive with the acts it books.

"We have had quite a lot of offers already from people who want to be involved with the festival next year," she said.

"It's all about making art more available for the public."

She said this year's event, which ran from September 9 to 19, was a great success.

"We have had some fantastic letters, one lady told me it was the best event she has ever been to. People said they had come to Saltaire not meaning to stay long and ended up staying all day.

"People have also said they now realise what a fantastic place they have on their doorstep," she added.

She said erecting a piazza stage in Caroline Street car park to put on live music was particularly successful and would be definitely repeated next year. This year's chairman of the festival Keith Brewster said: "It is difficult to maintain these things year after year when we are having to start from scratch every time.

"You have to have the funding in place to book events early.

"If the festival is to continue then we would like to see more committed funding coming from the Arts Council and other sponsors."

He said one possibility was the money could be used to pay for an administrator to carry out the day to day tasks, for example placing advertisements, answering queries, and so on as many of the volunteers worked.