Stratford River Festival 2015

In 2014 we accidentally found our way to the Stratford River Festival, and had a very enjoyable day out. As a result, we diarised the event for 2015, and took ourselves off to the festival again.

As planned we dropped into the River Festival for 2015. One immediate problem was traffic and parking. We came into Stratford via a back route and managed to avoid most of the long traffic queues. Clearly Stratford-upon-Avon’s roads are not designed to deal with the amount of extra traffic brought in by the festival. Although a couple of extra fields were provided for parking, it was all pay and display. No great problem, except that most of the payment machines were broken, shrouded in yellow covers. It was a LONG walk to find a working machine, and, of course a long walk back to put the sticker in the car. That IS something which needs to be resolved next time. It would have been better to simply collect a flat fee from everybody arriving.

Once that frustration was done, however, it was much the same as last year. A good selection of food, with a few stands selling something a bit different. Of course we had to have a few toasties from Jabberwocky in his old van. Great product that! The various craft stands offered interest, especially for the ladies, and the location is just very relaxing right by the water, watching the boats and people and swans.

This is definitely one for our diary next year. But what about a bigger approach – Stratford-upon-Avon is, of course, Shakespeare country. It would be an interesting weekend getaway to go for the weekend, visit all to do with Shakespeare, take in the butterfly farm, and go to the festival. See you there next year.

I was not there as a photographer, but, of course, was carrying a camera. Some photos in the gallery below.