It’s nearly time for ga

Following the success of its first summer festival in 2022, the Stone Food & Drink Festival is once again set to run in July next year – on Saturday, July 15 and Sunday, July 16.

However, with work set to commence on extensive developments on the town’s Westbridge Park, the event’s usual site, the festival team has been forced to find an alternative venue for the 2023 event.

The festival, which attracts thousands of visitors to Stone each year, will take place at Kibblestone Scout Camp just, 1.5 miles north of the town centre.

With a shuttle bus service and a packed programme of events planned for the town centre throughout festival week, the goal of the event remains to help bring visitors, and their revenue, into Stone for the benefit of local businesses.

Chairman of the non-for-profit event, Richard Stevens, explained: “After a fantastic return to full capacity last year and seeing a great turnout for our first ever summer event, the team was excited to start early planning for a July 2023 festival on Westbridge Park.

“However, when we approached the borough council to secure the park site it was made clear that, due to proposed works, we would be unable to use Westbridge Park in July or October 2023.

“This was a huge hit for the team – following a year out due to Covid and a reduced capacity event in 2021, the festival simply would not survive another year out – so we started looking at alternative ways that we could still run a festival.”

Richard continued: “Having investigated various options, Kibblestone provided an ideal opportunity – it has the space and infrastructure