COLNE’s popular blues festival has been named the best of its kind in Europe.

The annual Great British Rhythm and Blues Festival, which takes place over the Bank Holiday weekend in August, was named Best Blues Festival at the European Blues Awards.

The event, which has been held in Colne for the past 24 years, beat off competition from the Gaildorf Blues Festival, in Germany, and the Moulin Blues Festival, in Holland.

Alison Goode, organiser of the Colne festival, said: “We are absolutely delighted and extremely honoured to have won this award which officially recognises the Festival as the best in Europe.”

Formerly known as the Trans European Blues and Jazz Awards, the awards were started in 1981 by Dietrich Muller and Tall Boy Wilder.

This year, Colne’s musical extravaganza was declared the best yet by the people that attended it, with the likes of Bill Wyman and his Rhythm Kings, former Cream drummer Ginger Baker, Chris Farlowe and Nine Below Zero on the bill.