Bedworth Party in the Park returned to Collycroft Recreation Ground on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 July 2026 for a free community weekend of local entertainment, family activity, traders, charities and volunteering. Around 5,000 people attended across the weekend, with gates opening at 11am on both days.
A free weekend built around the community
Free admission remained central to the event. Visitors could come into Collycroft Recreation Ground without an entry charge and spend time around live entertainment, the funfair, food, stalls and family attractions.
The organiser’s event record shows 20 craft traders and five food traders, alongside four charity stalls and three community dance groups. Those figures are important because Party in the Park is not only about the main stage. It also creates space for independent traders, local charities and community groups to meet thousands of people in their own town.
Local entertainment filled both days
The 2026 programme records a broad mix of entertainment. Saturday’s main-stage running order included Michelle Ahern’s School of Dance, Phaze 1 Dance Academy, Lucas Rush, Take Off That and DJ Funky Monkey. FTGU Wrestling also appeared on Saturday with confirmed shows at 11am, 1pm and 3pm.
Sunday’s programme included EMW Dance, Britpop Forever — listed on the original programme as Joel McDougal Brit Pop — DJ Funky Monkey, UB4T and Tom Rest. FTGU Wrestling also appeared on Sunday, with the organiser confirming the participation even though individual Sunday show times remain part of the research record.
Keeping those details attached to the correct day matters. It allows the archive to show how the weekend unfolded and lets performer profiles connect back to the specific appearances that are actually confirmed.
Investment in local performers
The event invested £2,500.50 in live entertainment, recorded by the organiser as 100% local acts. That spending sits alongside the programme itself as evidence of the event’s role in supporting performers and creative activity close to home.
For the archive, the figures are useful because they show that live entertainment was not simply an extra attraction added to the weekend. It was a planned part of the event budget and one of the ways Party in the Park put local talent in front of a large family audience.
The people behind the weekend
A free community event still takes a considerable amount of work to deliver. The 2026 impact record calculates 398 volunteer and organiser hours across the event and its preparation. That total includes event volunteers, charity-stall volunteering and organiser planning time.
The recorded operational cost of the event was £10,515.29. Preserving that figure alongside the volunteer contribution helps show the practical scale of putting on Party in the Park, not just what visitors saw after the gates opened.
Collycroft Recreation Ground filled with activity
The 2026 event took place at Collycroft Recreation Ground in Bedworth. Contemporary Party in the Park material promoted live music, street food, a beer tent, bouncy castles, craft stalls and the funfair alongside the main programme.
Approved photographs now add another layer to that record. Rather than using them only as decoration, the archive can place selected images through the story with captions, alternative text and credit information, while retaining the full gallery for visitors who want to explore more of the weekend.
Traders, charities and community groups all had a place
Across the weekend, 25 independent traders took part when the 20 craft and five food traders are considered together. Four charity stalls and three community dance groups added further community participation.
That combination helps explain why the event is described as community-led. Traders, charities, performers, volunteers and visitors all contribute different parts of the weekend, and the archive should preserve those contributions instead of focusing only on headline entertainment.
What the impact figures tell us
The organiser’s post-event impact work also estimated wider community and economic value from food and craft trading, additional local spending and volunteer time. Those are estimates rather than audited sales totals, so the public archive should continue to describe them clearly as estimates.
The more concrete record remains the participation behind those calculations: approximately 5,000 attendees, 25 traders, four charity stalls, three community dance groups, local entertainment investment and hundreds of volunteer and organiser hours.
A year with a strong surviving record
For the historical archive, 2026 is especially valuable because so much contemporary material survives: programme information, organiser figures, promotional artwork and approved photographs. That gives the page enough substance to tell a proper story without relying on unsupported memories.
It also provides a useful standard for future event records. Programme information should be attached to the correct day, performer names should link to verified profiles, photographs should carry captions and rights information, and factual claims should remain connected to recorded evidence.
Preserving the weekend for the future
Party in the Park is a living event as well as a growing archive. Recording 2026 properly means the work of performers, traders, charities, volunteers and organisers does not disappear once the weekend is over.
As more original photographs, programmes or other verified material are added, the page can continue to grow. The aim is to preserve a warm, useful community story while keeping a clear line between what is known, what is estimated and what still needs research.
