A Pembrokeshire-based music competiton is to go ahead despite a massive loss of prize sponsorship, its organisers said this week.

The annual Welsh Celtic Fiddle contest is held as part of the Fiddle Festival of Wales, which takes place at the at the end of the month.

But there has been no luck in getting support for prizes for this year's competition, said event co-founder David Hughes, despite contacting some of Pembrokeshire's largest companies.

"In previous years, we had support from Dragon LNG, who generously donated £6,500 over the first five years," he said. "It appears that the global recession has come down hard on Pembrokeshire."

The lack of sponsorship was described as 'a hard blow' to the festival by co-founder Sian Phillips, as some of the country's top fiddle players were attracted to the event by the prizes.

"We shall make up some sort of prize, but nothing as attractive as in previous years," she said.

The festival opens at the Stackpole Centre on Wednesday September 30th with a concert by the 3 Daft Monkeys. There will also be workshops and masterclasses given by legendary jazz violinist Tim Kliphuis from Holland, the Albion Band's Joe Broughton; Mike Lease, who was runner-up in the Irish national competitions and the 2003 Young Traditional Fiddler of the Year, Ross Couper from Shetland.

For concert tickets and worshop booking, telephone 01646 621269.