Organisers of the Evesham Festival have released details of the 2014 prize fund – and there’s still bags of cash up for grabs despite the loss of one of the event’s long-standing sponsors.

Event director, Roger Mortimer announced the revised prize structure after a search for a headline sponsor for this year’s festival looked unlikely to produce new backers in time for the final weekend.

“We’d love to have kept the prize fund at the same level as last year and one of the reasons we’ve been slow in announcing the payout was a hope that a new sponsor could be found,” said Roger.

“However, despite one or two promising signs, we’ve had to admit that we’re unlikely to find a new backer in time for the August Bank Holiday weekend and we’ve had to cut our cloth accordingly.”

Saturday’s individual event – known as the Shakespeare Individual Championship for several years – will now be called the Evesham Individual Championship while the Sunday and Monday matches remain the Wychavon Championship and Match Fishing Team Championship respectively.

“The winner of this year’s Evesham Individual Championship will receive £3,000, the winner of the Wychavon will receive £2,000 and the team that wins the team championship will collect £1,750. Likewise, frame prizes and the section structure has been revised but there’s still £19,000 up for grabs over the weekend.”

“Thankfully the event will be business as usual in all other respects,” said Roger. “Trade stands are selling well, the beer festival will be bigger and better than ever and now that Evesham’s town bridge has reopened, the access problems of 2013 won’t be repeated.”

“Even the fishing looks to be on song. The early qualifying matches point to plenty of fish being caught at this year’s event.”

2014 Prize fund

Evesham Individual Championship

1^st £3,000

2^nd £1,500

3^rd £1,000

4^th £500

5^th £350

Wychavon Championship

1^st £2,000

2^nd £1,250

3^rd £900

4^th £500

5^th £350

Match Fishing Team Championship

Teams

1^st £1,750

2^nd £1,250

3^rd £750 

Individuals

1^st £400

2^nd £300

3^rd £200

Section winners in each final will receive £150

www.eveshamfestival.com