A festival to celebrate everything Preston city centre’s nightlife has to offer returns later this month.
AdvertisementPrestfest, which took place in May last year, aims to show off all sides of the city.
Preston is the only Lancashire town and city to have a Purple Flag award for its city nightlife.
Purple Flag is the equivalent for town and city centres as the Blue Flag for beaches.
More than 50 venues in the city have signed up to host events during Prestfest.
One venue planning to host a number of events from Thursday 30 January during the three night festival is comedy club the Frog and Bucket.
Jessica Toomey, general manager at the Frog and Bucket and chairman of the Preston by Night group, said: Being the only destination in Lancashire to fly the Purple Flag, we are on a mission to shout about why our city centre is a great place to visit at night.
“We believe Preston offers a unique night-out to people in Lancashire but we recognised the need to evolve and improve our offer to encourage people to come here and keep coming back.
“We held a Prestfest weekend in May 2013, to great acclaim, boosting footfall and trade in many quarters; this time, it will be even better and as an economy, we are really excited.”
Prestfest first ran in October 2011 and has grown to include a more diverse range of events.
A success last year was a series of walks exploring Preston’s dark history, proving the city centre is not just about a booze-fuelled night out.
The event is organised by Preston’s Business Improvement District, who are ploughing £20,000 into the event.
Events manager Mark Whittle said: “Prestfest is unique and we make the most of that fact, we saw visitors from as far away as Hull, Leeds, Liverpool and even Scotland last time.
“We will capitalise on this once again to promote Preston city centre as the destination for a vibrant and safe night out.”
More information on what’s happening throughout the three-day festival will be released during the course of this month.
You can find out more about Prestfest on the website or Twitter feed
Have you been to PrestFest? What did you think? Will you be going? Let us know in the comments below