Canal festival brings in the crowds to celebrate 10 years of fun
The 10th anniversary of a popular canal festival has seen hundreds of people come to enjoy a weekend of fun on the water.
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The Wednesfield Canal Festival saw dozens of boats moor up at the area around Bentley Bridge Leisure Park on Saturday and Sunday to showcase their designs and sell a range of items, from hand-crafted jewellery to homemade food, in a floating market.
The festival started out in 2014 with just a few boats and has grown in size, with the weekend a chance for people to see the boats, try out boating on the canal and also look at the various stalls on the car park of the Nickelodeon pub.
It also featured performances and music on the main stage, while the Harry Jones Funfair was also busy with rides and attractions at the Wednesfield event.
Wednesfield North Councillor Phil Bateman has been a part of the organisation of the festival since the first event and spoke about how it had grown over time.
He said: "When we started it, it was all about trying to ensure that we retained the canal and what we could turn it into a nature reserve, then it grew the next year and eventually grew to the point where it was too much for me to handle on my own.
"There's when Hands On Wednesfield came on board and offered to run it for me, which was great as it meant we were able to sustain it and grow it and since those opening days, it's grown by around 2,000 people per year and has become the biggest voluntary-run festival in Wolverhampton.
"We had more than 10,000 people in 2023 and we're expecting just as many, if not more, this year, so long as the weather holds."
The event also enjoyed sponsorship for the first time, with Councillor Bateman saying that Tomato Energy and the Commonwealth Legacy Fund had helped to put the event on.
He said the event had a really professional feeling and said it was a pleasure to be able to put it on again.
He said: "It's the same people who help to run it year on year, but it has that more professional feeling to it this year and everything seems to be growing.
"The fun fair is bigger and better and there are more stall holders that ever and we've got people like Hollywood Bowl here offering testers to the kids, so it's just great to be able to put this on."
