Bedford River Festival 2016
The Bedford River Festival is on Saturday July 16th and Sunday July 17th, and as usual, it's packed full of fun things for the whole family to get involved with! As usual, there'll be live entertainment, river events, carnival parade, funfair and fete. There'll be raft races, fireworks, sports, arts and heritage village, which this year will be recreating life in 1166, when the Bedford Borough was first formed!
People travel from all over the world to attend the Bedford River Festival, which takes place on Saturday 16th and Sunday 17th July. The 2014 festival saw visitor’s numbers reach an amazing 250,000 and with over 100 boats already signed up this year’s event promises to be bigger than ever!
As well as the carnival parade, events on the river include the popular illuminated boat parade, the kayak slalom; a Jet Boots display and the River Swim. In addition, the River Festival hosts two new events this year. A Hovercraft display and a paddle boat race. Finally, 22 Dragon Boat teams and 22 raft race teams will take the water to battle it out to find the ultimate winner!
This year, in celebration of the 850th anniversary of Bedford Borough being granted royal charter, there will be a Heritage Village on Castle Mound recreating 11th century Bedford. Events across the weekend include battle re-enactments, weapons demonstrations and storytelling.
The Bedford River Festival is free to the public and offers numerous opportunities to participate in, or just to relax and enjoy shows and performances from over 65 local bands and groups across three stages on the a 105 acre site.
Programmes are now available at the Tourist Information Centre (TIC), at No.13 and within borough libraries. For more information click here
Download Your River Festival Programme Here
The carnival parade, sponsored by Tesco, takes place on Sunday July 17th at Midday. It will be led by the critically acclaimed Bedford Pipe Band as it travels down De Parys Avenue and The Embankment. To make the event more fun for both participants and spectators, vehicles will once again be permitted in the parade so participants will be able to walk or organise a float. As always there is no obligation for those in the parade to follow a theme, but as 2016 marks the 850th anniversary of the Bedford Borough Royal Charter this might a good place to draw ideas from when it comes to costumes and decorations. To find out more click here
Traffic, Travel and Parking
Park and Ride sites operate from University of Bedfordshire and Elstow. Grab yourself a event programme to see the details on the map. Click on the link above. Operating hours are 11.00 to 22.00 on Saturday July 16th, and there will be additional buses after the fireworks. On Sunday July 17th the operating hours are 11am to 21.00.
Car parking is available at Bedford International Athletic Stadium and Bedford Borough Council car parks - see the map in the event programme. Bedford Borough Council town centre multi-storey car parks are only a 10 minute walk from the festival site.
If you're travelling by rail, Bedford St. John's station is just a 10 minute walk to the festival site. Services on the Marston Valley line will run regularly from Bletchley.
Services from Flitwick, Luton, St Albans, Wellingborough and more will run into Bedford station, a 15 minute walk to the festival site. check national rail for more details.
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