AN historic annual festival has been saved after a last-ditch meeting to decide its fate.

Barnard Castle Meet is the biggest event of its kind in Teesdale, but organisers were forced to hold a crisis meeting after they failed to attract enough volunteer committee members.

This year's Meet was cancelled because of the foot-and-mouth epidemic, and the number of committee members had dwindled from 17 at the beginning of the year to seven.

The handful of remaining committee members were on the verge of discontinuing the century-old event unless more volunteers and helpers came forward at the meeting.

But dozens of supporters turned out for the crisis talks at the Black Horse pub, in Newgate, Barnard Castle, on Wednesday night.

Enough volunteers have been found to form a committee, and planning is under way for next year's festival.

Meet committee member, Andy Wilsmore, said: "I think the committee just felt that if the people didn't want the Meet then there was no point continuing.

"We gave it one more go to attract volunteers and committee members, but if no-one had shown on Wednesday we would have called it a day.

"Thankfully, we have got some good people on board and we are looking forward to next year, but it was a pretty close run thing."

The Meet reached a crisis point at the last committee meeting, earlier this month, when members were forced to cancel it after an hour because no members of the public turned up and only a handful of committee members.

The committee decided to delay its annual meeting until Wednesday, to make a final decision on the Meet's future.

But now plans are being drawn up for next year's Meet, and members have confirmed that the traditional carnival parade through the town will continue to be centre point of the event. They are also hoping to introduce some new events.

The new committee will hold its first meeting in the next three weeks to discuss events for the Meet, which is held every year for three days over the May Day bank holiday weekend.