No Gloucester Tall Ships Festival in 2010

Gloucester’s award-winning Tall Ships Festival is being put on hold for a year while building works take place in the city’s Historic Docks.

It was originally hoped that the event could go ahead in May, but a number of projects taking place as part of the regeneration of the docks has prompted organisers to take the difficult decision to postpone for 2010 and come back with a bigger and better Tall Ships next year.

Major works are currently taking place to renew the pedestrian surface around the Victoria basin and to improve linkages between the Docks and the city centre. Organisers have been informed that building work will also be underway on the site of the former Merchant’s Quay shopping centre, restricting access around the main basin.

Graham Walker, Chief Executive of Marketing Gloucester Ltd, the company responsible for the event, said: “The 2009 Tall Ships Festival brought more than 75,000 people to the city, won silver at the South West Tourism Awards and was widely regarded as the best event ever to happen in Gloucester.”

“Building works taking place in and around the docks mean that we would really struggle to deliver an event we could be proud of in May this year, and with such a great reputation to uphold following last year’s successes, we felt it would be harmful to the future of the Tall Ships Festival to invite tens of thousands of visitors to an area that’s in the middle of a programme of building work."

Paul James, Leader of Gloucester City Council, added: “We’ve talked long and hard with the team at marketing gloucester ltd and with partners involved in the event, and in the end we all agreed that it would be in the best interests of the Tall Ships Festival to take a year out while the docks area is being upgraded.”

“We intend to stage an even bigger and better event in 2011 when the building works have been completed.”

In the meantime, the events team at Marketing Gloucester Ltd are putting together a great programme of events for summer in the city and developing plans for Christmas attractions and entertainment in Gloucester at the end of the year.

Explore Gloucestershire
8 March 2010

• Also see : Marketing Gloucester
• Also see : The City of Gloucester

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