A music festival in Whitby to raise funds for the town’s football team has been hailed a 'massive success' by Whitby Town FC Chairman Graham Manser.

Thousands flocked to The Stables at Cross Butts, Whitby on Saturday to be entertained by 70s music legend Graham Gouldman with his band 10cc, and million selling soul act The Real Thing featuring the original members of the group.

Final details of the amount raised for the club have yet to be announced, and Manser said: “It was a truly incredible day and there are so many people to thank .

“My great friends and Whitby supporters, boxing promoter Dennis Hobson, and his business partner Graeme Hinchliffe were instrumental in getting this moving and backing the club financially.

“The Morley family at the Stables at Cross Butts were our wonderful hosts, and BBC Tees presenter Paul 'Goffy' Gough has been in charge for the past four months of promoting the event for us to help us raise much needed funds –Goffy was also a wonderful host for the day.

“The VIP sponsors and people that bought tickets must be given a huge personal thanks from me.’’

The region has recently been hit by the news that the annual music festival at Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield has been cancelled, also a two-day comedy festival starring Jason Manford and a host of other comedians, set for Stewarts Park, Middlesbrough in July, was also scrapped.

Goffy, who runs his media company Goffy Media, said: “It was four months of very hard work as we have seen so many events are falling this summer here in the North East and on my travels I could see a little bit of negativity, but we were all 100 per cent focused on keeping The Coastline Festival on track for the club, and to fly the flag for music festivals here in our region this summer.

“The weather was phenomenal, the bands were superb and thousands had a most memorable day, and best of all Whitby Town Football Club will benefit financially so everybody wins.’’

Goffy was also keen to parse legendary 10cc front man, singer, songwriter Graham Gouldman who has played his part in the success of the event by conducting a series of radio, newspaper media interviews and various appearances ahead of the event

He added: “Graham even allowed us to use his studio in London to record some promos for the event and launch Whitby’s new strip, which was released last week.

“Graham Gouldman is a great lesson in how music stars can help pre promote and substantially help these kind of music festivals by getting involved personally with the media pre the event. His help was a major factor in so many people being with us on Saturday.’’