This year's Gloucester History Festival exceeded all expectations, with record ticket sales as visitors poured into the city attracted by top names and quality events.

Tickets sales were more than double last year's festival as thousands of people came to listen to the amazing line-up of TV personalities, top historians, actors and leading politicians, as well as take part in the City Voices events and Heritage Open Days.

More than 50,000 people also watched festival events broadcasted live online.

Dan Snow's brilliant History Hit podcast and Dr Janina's Art Detective podcast events reached a worldwide audience of more than 200,000.

The festival kicked off with Gloucester Day, celebrating the end of the siege of Gloucester during the first English Civil War, with thousands of people lining the streets.

It continued with the City Voices series of talks - activities, workshops and musical events, ranging from a talk by local hospital consultant Professor Hugh Barr on the History of Smell to an evening of 1930s and '40s Parisian Swing at St Mary de Crypt.

The Family Day was new this year, with free events for children of all ages, including workshops, art activities, storytelling, family trails and free shows.

Visitors made the most of the chance to visit historical properties not normally open to the public for free, with 75 per cent of the Heritage Open Day events fully booked.

A new app was supplied by Rock Solid Knowledge, a Bristol-based IT company to help people find their way to events, order tickets and keep track of each visitors' festival schedule, as many people booked multiple events and activities.

The whole event was brought together by many organisations and people across the city who joined together in a wonderful community spirit, backed up by amazing support from local businesses, volunteers, charitable trusts and individuals, without whom the festival would not have been possible.

The festival has also been able to spread its wings as it is one of the centrepieces of the Gloucester Great Place Scheme. This is a pilot project run by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England. Gloucester was one of the successful applicants awarded funding earlier this year.

Festival president Dr Janina Rameriz said: "I never dreamed this year's history festival could have gone so spectacularly well. This year it has gone to another level.

"People like Dan Snow, Anita Rani and Tony Robinson have come to Gloucester and given so much of their time and passion. They have supported us in our aim to make Gloucester proud of its history, its heritage and its culture.

"This year we've reached out to tens of thousands of people around the world through the live streaming. People have been tuning in from Australia, America and India, and we are only going to build on that next year and do something even better. Watch this space!"

Gloucester MP Richard Graham, a founder of the festival, said the festival was a dream come true for organisers.

"It has been two weeks of non-stop action: fun, tours, walks, events and happenings, you name it.

"The talks in the extraordinary thousand-year-old setting of Blackfriars have been seen by thousands of people.

"This is a dream that some of us had seven years ago and seeing it come true now and the enthusiasm that people have coming here is really exciting."

He heaped praise on the team who helped make it happen, without whom the festival could never have taken place, and urged people to come along next year to support it again.

"It's fun and it's a great way to showcase Gloucester," he said.

Punchline says: "We could have used pictures of the famous people who appeared at the festival on the website today but instead we wanted to highlight some of the amazing volunteers who helped make the event such a fantastic success."

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