Herne Bay Festival 2025
Sunday July 20th to Sunday August 17th

 Over 100 market stalls and entertainment  FREE ENTRY

This year we have again changed the layout and areas to the event to help increase the appeal to more demographics within the community.

The wrestling again is still a huge free section but is moved slightly further down the field, and the hot food and the bar will go either side of this to create a bigger entertainment area at the far end of the field. Last year the move did enable even more people to watch the wrestling, and the number was way over 499 people at any one time. The number of matches was increased last year and this will remain again, as this worked well as people stayed longer within the area. This provided more opportunities for audience participation for both children and adults and created a much more interactive environment. This year for the festival topic of celebration, they will also be running small children competitions throughout the day.

We will also have Free Music, DJ, and Demos at the other end of the field. Last year the wrestling was in the middle of the field for the first time, and the entertainment was at the end. This worked well. Both had a large area, which was full, but the wrestling noise carried over to the entertainment, hence the decision to move them as far away from each other as possible.

This year The Junior Driving School is back in the small field. This enables children to have a go at driving a ‘proper car’ for a very small charge. The money raised will be donated to the local food bank. Pass driving school also have a vast number of followers from different sectors of the community and this will help us to reach even wider into different sectors of the community.

We have also incorporated a Traditional Fair Games section again this year. This is to enable families to enjoy some cheaper ways to entertain the family if wanted. The traditional fayre games like roll the penny, higher and lower, smash the place, sticks, roll the dice, lock box, hook the duck and many more. This year we are also working in collaboration with Age UK Herne Bay and Whitstable, they will run the Traditional Fair Games area and the money raised in this area will go to help them continue running their programmes within the local area for the vulnerable older people of our communities. By collaborating with Age UK this year it is hoped that we bring another demographic to the event more, and maybe they will bring their families, friends etc.
Herne Bay LBGQT+ are also helping to steward the event.

We are also lucky to work with two amazing groups that are based in the park and help to remind people that they are based there permanently, and what they do for the community. The Community Gardens and the Heron Model Boat Club.