Huge crowds turn out for Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival despite scorching temperatures

Thousands of people turned out for the Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival near Peterborough last weekend despite scorching temperatures.

The annual event, held in the village of Stilton, just off the A1, returned on Saturday, May 24 for its third consecutive year.

The festival once again saw bumper crowds turn out for a day of competitions, food and family fun.

Despite temperatures reaching nearly 30C on the day of the festival, the highly anticipated cheese rolling races went ahead as planned.

The festival’s main event involves teams in fancy dress attempting to roll a cheese-shaped wooden block down a 100ft course at Stilton Pavilion.

Tianda Woolner, the treasurer and organiser of the Stilton Cheese Rolling Festival, told the Peterborough Telegraph: “I think most people were struggling in the heat.

“They just needed to keep drinking lots of water, and obviously the men had lots of beer!

“We put two big marquees up and the pavilion is a large hall which was cool inside.”

The cheese rolling races - which celebrate the village’s links to the famous cheese - went ahead as planned, with participants split into four categories: men, women, children and families.

This year, for the first time in the event’s modern history, the final race featuring volunteers used a real wheel of Stilton cheese, rather than the wooden block normally used.

“Planning for next year’s festival will start next January,” Tianda said.

“We plan to do new things every year. This year had a wild west theme and we also had line-dancing to get the crowd joining in.

“Whataver the theme is next year we’ll base everything around that, in terms of fancy dress and merchandise.”