Thousands to fill Peterborough’s Central Park for weekend music festival

Organisers hope it will be the first of many - and reminiscent of the popular Peterborough Festival Party In The Park events held there for years more than a decade ago.

The festival will take place on August 21 and 22 - with day one split between Proms in the Park featuring stars of TV’s The Voice Classical Reflection, Steve Bingham, Steve Bean and Land of Hope & Glory, followed by Ibiza in the Park featuring The Roscoe Bros, SyRan, Toby Graham, DJ Nick T and Eternals taking music lovers though to 11pm
Sunday - Bands in the Park starting 11am - will be dedicated to local artists, with live sets from Up Next, Mark Stephens, Andy Hughes, Hayley Di Rito, Electric Warriors, The Deps, Nicole Lawrence, Sound Injectors, Caustic Lights and The Expletives through to 10pm.

Adrian Corrigan, who runs The Willow Cafe Bar in Central Park and is one of the partners in Academy Events which is staging the festival, said he was excited that plans had now reached this stage with everything in place.

“It has always been an aspiration of hours to do something like this, and were even looking at it for last summer before the pandemic came along,” said Adrian who has fond memories of the big events staged in the park 15 to 20 years ago.

“So since February we have been quietly putting things together. We have presented our event management plan to the council - and there are a lot of boxes to tick - but we want to do it properly and we want to be back to do it again.

“Now we have all the necessary approvals in place, the bands booked, stage lined up, security in place etc we are ready to give it our best shot. The park has been in darkness for too long we want to bring something very positive.

“The park can take up to 5,000 people; it is a large area we are using and we feel we can have 2,500 to 3,000 people in groups with deckchairs and blankets very comfortably.

“There will be a main stage, a VIP area with tables and waitress service, from its own food and drinks bar, then a second public bar for all to use and more food outlets.”

The main stage area will face into the centre of the park to reduce the risk of noise nuisance, although Adrian said he had been in touch with the residents association who were very supportive.

The festival up has been drawn up to have a broad appeal - hence the split between classical, DJs and local bands - and has been well received by all the performers taking part.

“We haven’t had to ask anyone twice,” said Adrian. “And we have had lots of offers from people who would like to play but we are fully booked. We have more than 20 hours of music from almost 20 acts when there are hundreds out there in Peterborough. Who wouldn’t want to play in from of 2,000 or 3,000 people?”