We are very excited to once again bring you our Medieval Festival and look forward to welcoming you back in 2023.
We acknowledge that 2022 had some challenges and we have taken on board the feedback received to bring you a better festival experience in 2023.
Regarding the crowd concerns, please know that yes, we are reducing the volume of visitors this year, and we will not sell beyond our cap.
However, with reduced capacity means we will have fewer tickets available, so it’s important not to delay your purchase to avoid missing out.
Additionally, our team are working through the following pain points to alleviate the issues.
For improved entry and sales processes, we have changed our ticketing provider this year, the benefits of which we anticipate faster entry into the festival, as well as dedicated ticketing support, and for the first time, the opportunity to purchase ticket insurance for peace of mind.
Due to the popularity of our Stag Inn, we are excited to be bringing back the second tavern, a Viking Mead Tavern called Heorot Hall, to reduce the strain on the Stag Inn and provide another drinking location, at the far end of the Festival site, near the viking encampments. We are most definitely not pre-selling food packs this year.
With connectivity a major concern for our merchants and stalls, we are still looking at infrastructure to support the wifi for our vendors, and we have invested in Starlink and will be testing it in the meantime, as well as exploring additional solutions.
Regarding feedback about the traffic and bus transfers, we have had several in-depth traffic management meetings with Dept of Transport and MBRC and we are increasing our buses from the Park and Ride.
For better accessibility to facilities, we are increasing portable toilet facilities this year and planning to build another permanent toilet facility (unfortunately won’t be built in time this year)
To alleviate the food queues, we are working hard to source more local food vendors. Post COVID we lost several of our small food vendors who were unable to stay afloat, and others who had hesitancies after investing in stock the year prior and having the Festival cancelled within the final week due to lockdowns.
We are looking at an additional ATM location, however we still have to emphasise to bring cash. Our remote location makes digital access very difficult without significant investment (and time to build) required for additional cell towers, which we hope will be implemented at a state or local government level in the coming years.
As you can imagine it is a balancing act of keeping tickets affordable and delivering all the facilities required, and the festival also serves as our key fundraising event to support the operations of the Abbey Museum. The festival is something that we put a lot of love and effort into, and we want this reflected as an amazing experience for all.