A FREE Halloween festival is coming to Herefordshire.

The county will be hosting ‘Halloweenfest’ this October half term, a Halloween-themed festival which will be touring Bromyard, Ross on Wye, Ledbury, Leominster and Kington between October 30 and November 3.

Each town will have its own pop-up pumpkin patch with over 250 pumpkins for locals to carve, take home or enter into the festival’s ‘best-carved pumpkin’ competition.

There will also be craft activities running in conjunction with local businesses including Yat Pottery in Ross on Wye and the Sydney Nolan Trust in Kington.

All this will be in addition to face painting, circus skills workshops, balloon modelling, music and magic displays.

Diane Mansell, Chief Executive of Herefordshire County BID, who is organising this event as a Visit Herefordshire initiative said: “We wanted to host an event involving as many local businesses as possible which we hope will attract visitors from near and far and bring them into our market towns this autumn.

“Halloweenfest is a free family fun day out which we hope will be welcome as everyone is feeling the squeeze right now. In turn, we hope the events will give a boost to our hospitality, retail and tourism businesses in each town.

“This festival complements the many other superb half-term events and attractions already happening across the county at a time when Herefordshire is looking so beautiful as the autumn colours glow and our acres of orchards are being harvested.”

Halloweenfest has been funded by the Herefordshire County BID and has received £14,309 from the UK Government.