The organisers of Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park, which kicks off in Marlow today, have asked ticketholders to ‘respect our neighbours’ amid traffic concerns.
It comes after Buckinghamshire Council delayed plans to begin a two-week inspection of Marlow Bridge until Monday, May 20, to avoid overstressing local transport networks.
Organisers of the food and music festival have urged attendees to use public transport including local buses, trains and taxis to get to and from the four-day event, which runs from Thursday, May 16, to Sunday, May 19, instead of cars where possible.
They also warned of “extremely limited” parking provisions in the town and asked festivalgoers to “respect our neighbours” by not parking on residential roads.
Marlow Rugby Club will supply official weekend parking for Pub in the Park, with a £5 charge giving drivers the option of leaving their vehicles on the club grounds until 10:30am the next day.
The festival will begin in style at 6pm tonight (May 16), with a conversation between chefs Mary Berry and Matt Tebbutt in the Miele Kitchen Studio arena.
The former Great British Bake-Off host will later join celebrity restauranteur Rick Stein for a live chat with Simon Rimmer for his Pod in the Park podcast, and the two cooks will be hosting book signings throughout the evening alongside the main man himself, Tom Kerridge.
Restaurant stalls will also be dotted around Higginson Park from today onwards, with The Oarsman pub, Spanish eatery Jose Pizarro and Angela Hartnett’s Michelin-starred Italian, Café Murano, just some of the names in this year’s roster.
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And that’s not all – the festival’s hotly anticipated music line-up will kick into high gear by welcoming music legend Van Morrison to the mainstage tonight, ahead of Friday night headliners, the early-2000s boyband Busted.
After Brand Events, the festival that had run Pub in the Park since 2017, entered administration last summer, Kerridge stepped in as a minority shareholder in the newly-created enterprise that has now taken the helm – Pub in the Park Limited.
Speaking to the Free Press in November, Steve Lane, Managing Director of the food and music festival, promised that changes to the popular event would only be of a positive variety and include more “incredible value” for money than ever before.
Indeed, with a wider range of free-to-attend talks, demonstrations and performances than in previous years, alongside a packed bill of big-name chefs and food personalities, his hopes appear to be well-founded.
Limited tickets for Pub in the Park Marlow are still available to buy on the event’s website. Click here to view all purchase options.
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