IN terms of popularity, measured by visitor numbers and positive feedback, the Leigh Folk Festival has been a success story since its first outing in 1992. Measured financially, things look a lot less rosy.

This year’s event lost £2,000.

As once reliable sources of funding continue to dry up, prospects for 2016 may be even bleaker.

The festival does not exist to make money, of course, and it is run by unpaid volunteers, but it still needs to meet its costs.

After drawing up this year’s profit and loss account, the festival treasurer Ian Flack has issued a warning. Unless funding improves, there may not be a festival next year.

Music makers that they are, the festival organisers clearly do not intend to fade away quietly. They are already making active moves to tap into non-traditional sources of funding.

Of these, crowd funding via the internet carries perhaps the most promise. This method has already proved effective in supporting other arts and leisure events around Britain. Donors may be even more incentivised if they realise that their funds could be an event life-saver.

Music and setting are so well matched, and the festival has become so ingrained into the Thames Estuary summer, that it seems the festival has been around for far longer than just 24 years. It has become an institution.

We have already lost the Southend Air Show. We do not want the folk festival to fall silent as well.

All those who love the sound of folk music by the waters should respond generously to forthcoming appeals.