THE St Richard’s Canal Festival in Droitwich will take place this May bank holiday weekend and is completely free for everyone to attend.
The extravaganza runs from Friday, May 2, to the bank holiday Monday, May 5, featuring multiple events and activities, including boating, duck racing, community stalls, live entertainment and a real ale bar.
Among the activities will be a boat trip on the new Pamela May II from Vines Park and along the canal.
And there will be narrowboats and trading boats moored up for the weekend, along with model boats on display for demonstrations.
The annual Great Droitwich Duck Race, which takes place at 4.30pm on the bank holiday Monday on the River Salwarpe, is always among the highlights. Tickets to have a duck in the race are £1 with cash prizes for the winners.
Other events include a Fun Dog Show on bank holiday Monday at 11am, and the annual Blessing the Upwich Brine Pit and procession on the Saturday morning.
How the festival began
The festival started with Richard de Wyche, who was said to bless Droitwich Spa with brine in the 1240s. He was canonised in 1262 and St Richard’s Day has been celebrated in the town ever since.
The Droitwich Barge Canal was built to carry salt from Droitwich down to the Severn and was completed in 1771. The Junction Canal was constructed in 1853/4 to try to revive the canal trade which had been eroded by the development of the railways. Both canals were abandoned in 1939.
Canal restoration
A campaign to restore the canals was initiated by the late Max Sinclair in the late 1960s and soon the Droitwich Canal Trust was formed.
In 1973 work began on restoring the canals.
In 2001, as part of the trust’s fund-raising campaign, annual summer water festivals in Vines Park were arranged on the already restored canal in Vines Park, and in 2006 there was also a revival of the celebration of St Richard’s Day with a well dressing.
From 2008, the two events were combined and held on the first Saturday in May.
The canals were fully restored in 2011 (all the way from Hanbury Wharf down to the River Severn).
In 2013 the festival was extended to become St Richard’s Festival, extending over the whole weekend with events in the town centre as well as in Vines Park.
Over the years that followed, Wychavon District Council became one of the main organisers of the event with more and more input from, amongst others, the Worcester to Birmingham and Droitwich Canals Society.
In 2016 a decision was made by the council to re-focus the festival back into Vines Park for 2017 and to step back from its involvement. The Worcester to Birmingham and Droitwich Canals Society successfully took it over as the main organisers with help from the district and town councils and others.
Visit strichardsfestival.co.uk or facebook.com/srcfdroitwich for more on the festival, including the full programme of events.
