This first Walking Festival held in Newtown on June 1st and 2nd June, 2019 was highly successful and well attended and supported. We hope you can join us for our next festival on the first weekend of June 7th and 8th, 2020.
The weather was kind and the scenery was glorious. The festival was opened by newly inaugurated mayor, David Selby, who later also joined one of the walks.
We had a total of 23 guided walks, mostly with 2 trained leaders, and 2 self-guided anytime walks. A total of 162 people registered (a few walkers did not register) and at least 202 people went for a walk, including leaders. Only one walk (Saturday Bumps and Buggies) had no participants, one (Foraging walk on Saturday) was full at 20 people. 112 of the walkers were from Newtown. 39 were tourists of which 23 were from the local area (Powys, Shropshire) and 16 from further abroad, including New Zealand.
Walking Festival walkers even saved a life during the festival. The Welsh walkers to Fachwen Pool found a calf trapped in a ditch with its hoof trapped by barbed wire. They suspended their walk to alert the farmer. He immediately went to extract the distressed animal and returned it to its mother. The farmer was very grateful to the walkers and said, “it could have been much worse if the calf hadn’t been found for many hours.” The incident was a great boon to farmer/walker relations in the community.
Below are a few of the many photos taken during the festival.
