Preston City Council hope to follow up the success of last years Preston Guild with a new ‘weekend cultural festival.’

Yet to be agreed, the new event could see the best of Mela and Caribbean carnival together with community and faith groups. The idea is o celebrate the diverse cultural heritage of the city through music, traditional and contemporary workshops and world food.

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The Guild witnessed the participation of different sections of the Preston community. This was particularly noticeable in the community procession. The council wants to build on this and are considering identifying resources they can use for the new events programme.

The council is actively working with the existing event stakeholders of all the big Preston events taking place this year (Carnival, Mela and Riversway) to empower partners to continue developing and delivering events without direct input from the council. They are looking to develop a sustainable way forward for this year. A report will be submitted to cabinet soon.

Additionally the city may also see a Summer and Winter programme. Both these would have key anchor events which would tie together some smaller and community events.

Running November to December this proposed seasonal event looks to tie in Bonfire Night, late night shopping, Christmas lights switch on and Lancashire Christmas markets.

Preston City Games will be a new regular addition to the sporting calendar, building on the success of the UK Corporate Games last year. Based at UCLan’s Sports Arena and the Sir Tom Finney Sports Centre the event, which aims to attract local businesses of any size, the games will host a number of different sports.

Councillor Tom Burns, cabinet member for advice services, culture and leisure, said: “It is important we re-assess and plan a programme of events which will be of a quality that the people of Preston are expecting following Preston Guild and the legacy left by the festival.

“There is a clear hunger for Preston to host other events and from the evaluation that has taken place, the new vision is very exciting.

“We want to put on more events, with a focus on attracting people into the city centre on a more regular basis. We want to take some of the elements of the Guild which were really popular and successful and see how can keep them going.”

What are your thoughts about a weekend cultural festival in Preston? Do you want to see more events in the city following last years Guild? Let us know in the comments below