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 Scot 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, explains:
“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. Having investigated various options, Kibblestone provided an ideal opportunity – it has the space and infrastructure the event needs, ample on-site parking and is close enough for us to run shuttle buses to and from the town centre to ensure the festival still benefits town centre businesses.
“As part of our commitment to the town, we are once again working closely with Stone Traders’ Group to get local businesses involved in the event and will be running a packed programme of town centre events during the run-up to the event, something we are delighted to return to now restrictions have fully eased. We are confident that we will put on a great foodie event for Stone in 2023, and intend to return to Westbridge Park as soon as we are able – hopefully for the 2024 festival!”
Full details and tickets are set to be released in early 2023 via the festival website – www.stonefooddrink.org.uk
