Some good news this week from Laura Moss at The Cycle Touring Festival. There was some doubt about the future of the festival last year as the location of all the in-person festivals to date – Waddow Hall in Clitheroe – is in the process of being sold by the Girl Guide Association. Would it return to Clitheroe in 2024? Would a new venue be found? Would, indeed, the festival return at all? These were the questions in many attendees’s minds as they headed home from the October gathering a few months ago, shivering from their two or three nights in a tent.

This week an email arrived from Laura. I read it with a certain amount of trepidation bearing in mind the uncertainly hanging over the future of the festival but it contained not just one piece of good news, but two. The festival will indeed continue but not in Clitheroe. A new location has been found, in the Lake District at John Ruskin School in the town of Coniston, close to the lake of the same name.

The second piece of good news is that it will return to its pre-COVID place in the calendar in May. Recent festivals in Clitheroe in have taken place in October and it has not been so warm. In fact at times it has been downright freezing so to see it return to spring is, in my humble opinion, a second piece of excellent news. Clearly nothing can be guaranteed when it comes to the weather and the Lake District but at least there will be some fresh leaves on the trees and the days will be getting longer even if the temperature might not be rocketing. Laura has chosen the first bank holiday weekend in May rather than the second and the festival will take place from Friday 3rd until Sunday 5th leaving Monday free for either recovery or travel home.

I dare say that Laura will be looking for speakers over the coming weeks and months so if you have an interesting tale to tell, why not get in touch with her?

Keep an eye of the Cycle Touring Festival website for more details or join the festival’s Facebook group.

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