One of the county’s leading festive events is set to go ahead despite wet weather

One of the county’s leading festive events is set to go ahead despite wet weather significantly hampering parking plans.

Attingham Park’s Frost Fair takes place this Friday to Sunday when up to 12,000 visitors are expected to flock to the National Trust site near Shrewsbury.

The popularity of the annual event requires considerable overflow car parking areas to be set up in neighbouring parkland, however this year, the recent wet weather has resulted in a lot of the ground being waterlogged, causing problems for the organisers.

Mark Agnew, General Manager, said: “The exceptional wet weather means it has been a bit touch and go as to whether we should go ahead with the event due to the car parking difficulties we now face. However, we have had a meeting today and will forge ahead with plans to effectively utilise the car parking space we do have.
“Where possible, we are urging visitors to try and car share or arrange to get dropped off and picked up. This will be a great help as we will be limiting the amount of vehicles parked on site during the three days.”

Mark added that the situation is all the more frustrating due to the fact that this year’s event looks set to be the biggest and best so far.
“It is a really unfortunate situation where everything is on track for what promises to be a fantastic event – it’s just the weather that looks likely to let us down”, he said. “We hope that everyone who attends will appreciate the difficulties we have encountered with the car parking and that it all runs as smoothly as possible.
“People often forget that the National Trust is a charity and that large events such as this are essential in providing income to allow us to continue our conservation projects.”

The Frost Fair, which began as a one day event in 2005, last year ran for three days and exceeded more than 12,000 visitors. This year there will be more than 100 stalls selling a huge range of crafts, food and gifts. The stalls are located within large marquees in the grounds as well as in the atmospheric below stairs rooms of the mansion.

Flora Hutchison, Events and Marketing Officer, said: “We are delighted at how the Frost Fair is growing in popularity each year.
“A huge amount of effort goes into the event both onsite here at Attingham, with the preparations, and offsite as all of the local traders prepare to select their stock and set up their stalls.
“We can assure everyone involved that we will be doing our utmost to ensure that the show will go on.”

For updates leading up to the Frost Fair please call 01743 708170 and for the latest information over the weekend please check Attingham Park’s Twitter account (@AttinghamParkNT)and Facebook page (facebook.com/AttinghamPark), or call Visitor Reception on 01743 708154.