Bedford River Festival 2012

The Bedford River Festival took place over a weekend recently and I decided to have a look on 21st July. I had been in previous year but this year there seemed to be a huge number of people, perhaps many more than before. Maybe this was caused by the fact that we have had a number of weeks of bad weather and suddenly it was lovely and people wanted to have a day out.

Almost every parking spot for miles round Bedford seemed to have been taken but I was lucky enough to find somewhere to the north of Russell Park. The park itself was full of people in the middle and had a large music stage and a variety of stalls round the edge..

A vast number of people packing Russell Park

There were a number of music stages with this one in Russell Park

One of the main purposes of the Festival is to provide a shop window for local clubs and societies.

The local Microlight Centre had a stand.

Lots of fitness clubs put on displays and were on the
lookout for new members

Food stalls, particularly foreign foods are a feature of the Festival so there is no need to go hungry at this event...

Naturally the river provides the centre of activities with things like Dragon Boat racing, boat parades and various canoe events.

A canoe coming down the high ramp.

Not a bad day out with a huge number of other side shows etc. I enjoyed the company of my friend Don at the event but I think that we probably both felt that this may not be one of our favourite types of show. I felt that although a lot of people put a huge amount of effort into organising stands to promote their particular interest it really lacked the content that would have made it of more interest to me personally.