Date announced for Waterways Festival

At the annual event, organised by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust, a flotilla of boats will moor at Victoria Park while stalls and a funfair will cater for this year’s theme of ‘Midsummer Madness’.
Boats will start arriving for the festival on June 21, including the workboat Avon Vale, which is used by volunteers to care for the canal, and guests can enjoy a ride on the pleasure boat Jubilee over the midsummer weekend.
Visitors will also have a chance to look inside a collection of narrowboats and a 70ft barge, including some that will be available for holiday hire.
Crowds will be kept entertained with a series of stalls, a funfair and a land train and music will be provided by local saxophone quartet Group Sax.
The festival will conclude with the traditional duck race, in which more than 1,000 plastic ducks will ‘race’ down the canal to win a prize.
At last year’s event thousands of people flocked to the park, and John Ross, of Ash, near Basingstoke, scooped the award for his ‘Best- Dressed Boat’, which was decorated in the theme of ‘Diamonds and Gold’ to mark the Queen’s diamond jubilee. The free Festival open at 10am and runs until 5pm.