Little Stoke Park has been a hive of activity in recent days as the compound for the 2023 Bristol Foodies Festival has taken shape.
The three-day food and drink extravaganza kicks off tomorrow (Friday 12th May 2023) and includes demonstrations by celebrity chefs and a funfair.
It is taking place in Little Stoke Park for the first time after Bristol City Council refused to let it back onto The Downs following alleged breaches of licensing conditions at the Foodies Festivals held there in previous years.
A licence application made to South Gloucestershire Council for this year’s event was objected to by the police and health & safety officers, who expressed concerns about the event management and potential impact on residents living close to the park. However, the three members of the Licensing Sub-Committee decided that additional information submitted by the applicant plus the imposition of conditions requested by the police were sufficient to mitigate the objections.
The licence that has been granted covers an attendance up to 4,999, but it is expected that the peak crowd at this year’s event will be around 3,000 (on the Saturday).
The festival organisers have said they are encouraging visitors to use public transport, however provision has been made to accommodate up to 600 cars in an area within the Mike Gallivan Memorial Fields (on the other side of Little Stoke Lane to the park [map]).
Advertised opening times are 12pm-9pm on Friday, 11am-9pm on Saturday and 11am-8pm on Sunday.
Headline music acts due to perform at the festival are Blue, on Saturday evening, and Scouting for Girls, on Sunday evening.
At the time of writing, online admission tickets were priced at £18 for Friday and £23 for Saturday and Sunday. A family ticket was also advertised for £49 on each of Saturday and Sunday. Weekend tickets are also available. Visit the Foodies Festival website for the latest prices.
Site plan
The festival site is enclosed by Heras fencing on an area of the park to the north-west of the 3G pitch, community hall and café, stretching down to the Aretians rugby pitch.
The music stage is closest to the 3G pitch, with the fairground sited along the south-western boundary of the enclosed area.
The remainder of the site is occupied by food stalls, exhibitors and miscellaneous small attractions (including axe throwing!)
Weather
The current weather forecast is for drizzle and a moderate breeze on Friday, then sunny intervals and a gentle breeze on Saturday, followed by light rain showers and a gentle breeze on Sunday.
More information
For further information and to book tickets, visit Bristol Foodies Festival 2023.
A timetable of events is included in the free Show Guide, available on issuu.com.
See also: Foodies Festival on Facebook
Event feedback
UPDATE added 15th May 2023.
Whether you were a festival-goer or are a resident living close to the park, we’d like to hear your feedback on the event.
Please leave a comment on this website article or on this post on the Stoke Gifford Journal Facebook page: https://bit.ly/3W2nDto
Parish council statement
UPDATE added 17th May 2023.
In a statement published on the Stoke Gifford Parish Council website, John Rendell, parish clerk, said:
“A huge thank you to the thousands of local residents who attended the Foodies Festival at Little Stoke park over the weekend. It was the first time the parish council has held such a large event and it was imperative we heard the concerns of the local residents, so office staff and Councillor’s worked very closely with the event management team leading up to the event to ensure it ran well with minimal disruption to everyday life.”
“As I write this, we have just signed the team off site who have been completely professional throughout their stay and I applaud their work ethic and attention to detail. I personally attended the event on all three days, and it had a real feel about the festival that it was well ran and under control.”
“As always with an event of this magnitude we have recognised some areas that we would like to see improved should this event continue to run here in Little Stoke and we have fed back our ‘lessons learned’ to Sue and her team and I have no doubts this would potentially grow from strength to strength going forward.”
“I am so pleased the parish have managed to offer such an event within South Gloucestershire at one of our excellent recreational sites within the Stoke Gifford Parish.”
Grounds damage
UPDATE added 18th August 2023.
From the parish council’s head groundsman’s report presented to a meeting of the Recreation & Leisure Committee on 18th July 2023:
Foodie’s festival
“Although it went reasonably well, the aftermath has been a tough one for the ground staff with lots of man hours trying to repair the damage done and the dry weather certainly didn’t help, so repair work will need to be ongoing to make the pitch areas safe to use again.”
“My feeling is that we do not have the staff levels to repair this, especially if we have a wet weekend and I think it may be a question on what you want to use the field for because in the long term on a field such as this it will either be a show field or an area for sport and leisure. That is just my opinion, simply because of the damage caused by the heavy traffic needed to go onto and move around the area.”
Festival to return in 2024
UPDATE added 17th September 2023.
Stoke Gifford Parish Council has approved the return of the Foodies Festival event to Little Stoke Park in 2024. This was agreed at the Full Council Meeting held on 12th September 2023.
The currently planned date of the event is Friday 17th to Sunday 19th May 2024.
“Shock move”
UPDATE added 5th April 2024.
A BristolWorld article published on 4th April says the Bristol area Foodies Festival will move to Bath for 2024.
🔗 Popular Bristol festival to be held in Bath this year in shock move (BristolWorld)
We live next door to this and apart from a A4 notice pinned to the main gate no notification or consultation was given to local residents. The noise and disruption from this has been ongoing for 5 days before the start continuing through from 5am to midnight and occasional movement on site throughout the night.
It is another example of Stoke Gifford Parish Council not giving any thought to the Local Residents.