St Albans Spring Festival hailed as a ‘huge success’
Thousands of people attended the “hugely successful” St Albans Spring Festival – a free City Centre street party with entertainment for all.
The Festival, returning for its second year, was a celebration of food, community spirit and sustainability – and showcased the District’s hospitality businesses and tourism offering.
Among the many attractions were live music, arts and crafts, street performers and around 100 stalls selling takeaway food, drink and other produce.
The street food offered a taste of cuisines from around the world including Korea, the Caribbean, the Himalayas, Thailand, Turkey and Nigeria.
There were also opportunities to learn, play and create with fun activities including at the Experience Zone where there was an impromptu dance party featuring salsa and Bollywood taster sessions.
Families and groups of friends enjoyed sheep rodeo, wooden games, coding and games design from Code Ninjas and competitions from Specsavers.
There were opportunities to make art inspired by nature, listen to music from talented local musicians and learned about community environmental initiatives such as St Albans Fixers and St Albans Greenhouse.
The event, on Sunday 17 May, saw St Peter’s Street, Chequer Street and High Street closed to traffic to create a safe environment.
To ensure accessibility, British Sign Language interpreters and Age Friendly ambassadors were in attendance while there was also priority seating and wheelchair ramps.
St Albans City and District Council organised the event which was sponsored by St Albans Code Ninjas as well as St Albans and Harpenden Specsavers.
Councillor Edgar Hill, Lead for Events, said:
I was one of the many thousands of people who took a trip to the City Centre for the Spring Festival and saw with my own eyes how hugely successful it was.
There were many exciting attractions and it was thrilling to see so many residents and visitors out and about enjoying themselves.
The Festival was an Age Friendly event and significant efforts were made to ensure it was accessible to everyone, so no one missed out.
I would like to thank our events team and our sponsors for making this wonderful event possible and bringing it back for a second year. The crowds show there is certainly a demand for it.
Photos by Stephanie Belton: scenes from the St Albans Spring Festival 2026.
Media Contacts: www.stalbans.gov.uk/news-and-whats.