Town gears up for first three-day music festival

The town’s hugely popular music festival is expanding after 20 years from a one day event to a fully fledged three-day banger.

Spread over multiple locations for the first time, Buckingham Live 24 features everything from folk and acoustic acts to rock, Bollywood beats and even poetry.

The fun kicks off at The Grand Junction on Friday, May 24, with Acoustic Night.

That’s followed on Saturday by Buckingham Live in the Cattle Pens – featuring a New Talent Showcase – and Rock Night at The Woolpack, with The Cote.

Headline entertainment is the Buckingham Live Music Festival on Sunday, May 26 – a whole day of music, food and fun including a barn dance, amazing live bands and children’s activities at Buckingham Football Club from 1pm to 10pm.

The changes have been made due to the popularity of the event, which has been running for more than 20 years and had outgrown its previous one-day location in Market Hill.

More artists can now take part, and it will cater for higher footfall over more days and across a wider area of the town centre over the whole May bank holiday weekend.

This year’s event has benefited greatly from additional sponsors Stowe School, Vitalograph, Akeley Wood School, Gilroy Steel, MobileRE and BCQ.

Buckingham Live 24 is organised by Buckingham Town Council and Buckingham Live Sessions, which offers opportunities for creatives such as musicians, singers and poets to show their talents in a dedicated performance space.

The monthly live sessions held at Buckingham Football Club are extremely popular with both novice, experienced artists and audiences.

It’s not too late for other businesses to get involved, so contact Suzy Smith for details about Buckingham Live 24 and Buckingham Live Sessions on their Facebook and Instagram pages.

Cllr Robin Stuchbury, chair of the town centre and events committee, said: “The committee in supporting these changes was delighted that this popular event is expanding to three days, over more locations, while maintaining a town centre presence.

“We thank our partners at Buckingham Live Sessions who have been working hard with local venues to make this change.”