This September, Aylesbury town centre will be awash with a continental market, a floating market, live music, street entertainment, canal boat trips, water-based activities, arts and crafts, food tasters, refreshments, and much more, all at the new and exciting Waterside Festival.
For its first year, Waterside Festival will host a vibrant mixture of stalls, activities and treats to suit everyone. With an outstanding reputation of bringing the finest quality, diversity and service, Geraud Markets will be hosting a fantastic continental market of over 30 stalls, lining Aylesbury’s town centre canal basin. Walk along the beautiful canalside and explore a varied, vibrant and immensely talented array of traders at the floating market, brought to you by the Roving Canal Traders Association (RCTA). Typically the RCTA welcomes artists, photographers, knitters, sewists, bag makers, cake makers, wood crafters, leather crafters, jewellery makers, vintage clothes traders, herb boats, beer boats and lots more to events, making the floating market the perfect opportunity to purchase a unique gift for a loved one, in a different setting to the hustle and bustle of a lively shopping centre.
There will also be multiple chances to get creative with an array of art and craft activities including air clay, stencil and colouring with Queens Park Arts Centre. A spokesman from Queens Park Arts Centre commented: “Queens Park Arts Centre is delighted to have been invited to take part in the very first Waterside Festival. Our team of volunteers will be on hand to provide free art and craft activities, inspired by the canal itself, and also to publicise this year’s epic Arthurian pantomime – The Sword in the Stone.”
Adding some music, entertainment and glamour to the day will be Ubiquitous Theatre. Nick Andrews, a Director of Ubiquitous Theatre of Aylesbury said: “We were delighted to be asked to provide some theatricality to the Waterside Festival. With funding from Aylesbury Vale Arts Council, we have been able to bring together a 100-strong local choir, a specialist canal based theatre company, Bucks WI as suffragettes and our own actors to provide both entertainment and depth to what promises to be a wonderful day.”
The canal basin is starting a new chapter in its two-hundred-year history in revitalised surroundings, and Waterside Festival will be a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the past, present and future of this beautiful space in Aylesbury town centre.
Leading the organisation of Aylesbury’s first canal festival is the Aylesbury Town Centre Partnership. Diana Fawcett, Aylesbury Town Centre and Regeneration Manager said: “The canal is over two hundred years old and was originally built to transport goods to London. We are delighted to be working with so many businesses and organisations to celebrate the history of the canal and hope the event will grow each year.”
For all the latest information, news and updates please visit; www.watersidefestival.org.