St Ives on the River Great Ouse

August Bank Holiday Weekend 25th-27th August.

2007 sees IWA's National Festival & Boat Show move to St Ives in Cambridgeshire. The festival boasts many attractions for people of all ages. From traditional drinking games going on in the marquees and special events for children, there is fun for the whole family!St Ives is a small market town (once the home of Oliver Cromwell) with many places of interest, delightful walks and a market on Mondays and Fridays. St Ives also has excellent road links to the M11, A1, M1 and A14 as well as being only 12 miles from Cambridge and 25 miles from Bedford, both of which are on the Great Ouse river system. 

The Festival site will start to build up from 10th August 2007 with craning in of the exhibition boats taking place on 22 August 2007 which is a great photo-call opportunity.  

Attractions

Currently there are over 15 boatbuilders exhibiting at the Festival, showing in excess of 25 new craft, from wide beam to narrow, from steel to GRP, Dutch barges, coracles to cruisers. All available to view and buy! On the Sunday evening, there will be one of our Festival highlights - the Parade of Illuminated Boats. Regular festival visitors will be bringing their full light show with them to decorate their boat in the hope of winning the grand trophy.

One of the daily Arena events will be "The Great Wild West Show". This exciting show will include demonstrations of Cowboy Skills, a hilarious form of "Red Indian Wrestling" and Line Dancing for all the family.Other entertainments around the site will include a mobile belfry, archery, falconry displays and a blacksmith who will be doing demonstrations! Other attractions include a one-man band, circus skills workshops for the children, morris dancing sides, line dancing, a jazz band, folk groups, boat trips on the river and classic car displays. Entertainments for children include the Wild over Waterway activities. Children can sign up for their Passport for £1.50 and then take part in up to 20 activities around the site.

Get Set to Cook is an exciting new attraction at the National Festival in St Ives over the August Bank Holiday will be the twice-daily “Get Set Go Cook” gourmet cookery demonstrations. For Real Ale devotees there will be 50+ Real Ales in the Bar Marquee and a great variety of food to go with them.  When combined with all the live music, children’s activities, arena events, steam boats, fantastic range of new boats to view and, of course, the gourmet cookery demonstrations the Festival will be a Great Day Out for everyone.  And don’t forget – accompanied children under sixteen come in FREE !
 

Adults: £8.50, Concessions (Students & over 65s): £6.50, Children under 16 and Carers: Free