Bourne Festival date moved back a month in hope of better weather

A popular town beer and music festival is moving to a later date in the summer to try to give revellers better weather.

The three-day Bourne Festival, held at the Wellhead Field, will this year move from its traditional early June slot to Friday to Sunday, July 11 to 13.

While the Great British weather can be a law unto itself, it is a move that event organisers, Bourne Round Table, has been mulling over for a while.

“It's an absolute shot in the dark, but we’re hoping that by pushing it to July, hopefully the sun might shine on us a bit more,” said Kevin Gutteridge.

“We've talked about it a few times over the last few years and we sort of ran out of reasons why we shouldn't just try and move it a month.”

Wet weather has plagued the festival a few times in recent years which, combined with the vehicles using the site, can churn up parts of the park.

“We've had a number of years where we've really been caught out by the weather,” Kevin said.

“It's a bit of a running joke that we only ever seem to do the event when we've either been absolutely baked or wading around all getting trench foot - we don't get anything in between.

“We've had years where actually, the weather has looked good, we've started and then it has started to rain and ultimately it churns that field up really, really quickly.”

Kevin added: “We take a lot of precautions. We stop guys coming on site, but at the end of the day, if we’re bringing the sound or lighting kit on and off site, it’s very difficult to do that without driving the truck.

“Bourne United Charities are really good with us and very understanding, but the last thing we want to do is ruin the parks for everybody for the rest of the summer.”

The event attracts 8,000 to 10,000 revellers each year and raises tens of thousands of pounds which are ploughed back into local community causes and projects.

Tickets are already on sale, with the line-up set to be announced in the coming weeks.

“The line-up hasn’t been confirmed yet, but it's looking pretty good, the caterers are all pretty much booked, and the lighting and sound guys are all on stand-by, so it’s all coming together,” said Kevin.

For tickets, visit https://www.bournefestival.com/

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