Updated for 2025

Pub In The Park, St Albans

What I loved about it:

Taste incredible food from top UK restaurants all whilst enjoying great music.

Location:

Verulamium Park, St Albans

Suitable for:

serious foodies, groups of friends wanting a good night out and couples for a great date night.

With top acts performing on the main stage, cooking demonstrations, celebrity chef demos and Q&As, a wide selection of pub and restaurant pop ups plus and artisan food market, there is plenty to do in the time you get. I definitely recommend arriving as soon as you can in order to get round the site, we underestimated how much there was to see and do and missed out on a few things. All the more reason the visit next year!

VIP treatment

We went for the ‘VIP experience’ which gives you access to the VIP lounge-  where you can avoid larger queues for the bar, get access to fancy toilets, enjoy up close Q&As with celeb chefs (we saw Simon Rimmer) plus have great views of the main stage. You also get vouchers for two dishes which can be redeemed in any of the on-site restaurants and a drink.

For any foodies I would say this is a great event to have on your radar for 2025, it’s not cheap but there really is so much to see, we loved the Firepit with great BBQ demos, providing a lovely warming atmosphere when the sun goes down. The artisan market was also great, make sure you bring a strong shopping bag as you’ll be wanting to take lots of tasty treats home with you. We bought brownies from the Chock Shop to take home to the kids, and some Norfolk Rum- we may have had a couple of tasters of this before we purchased!

Award winning food

Just thinking back to the food over that evening, my mouth is watering. It’s a great chance to sample some of the dishes from award-winning and Michelin-starred eateries. The pork belly tacos from The Hand in Flowers were something else, and Atul Kochhar, who has a number of restaurants including the renown (and wonderful) Bernares restaurant in London, served a channa samosa which was the perfect accompaniment to nice cold pint! The queues for food build throughout the afternoon so I would suggest arriving hungry and eating early on, so you can spend the rest of your time browsing the demos and enjoying the music.

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Artists playing when we were there were Gok Wan, who did a belter of a DJ set, Sophie Ellis Bexter- dazzling in the most sparkly outfit I think I’ve ever seen and crowd favourites McFly. Gok is making a return appearance this year, with other artists including Dizzee Rascal, Daniel Bedingfield, Ministry of Sound Classical, Squeeze and Alfie Boe plus many others.

This is definitely an event to add to your 2025 summer itinerary.

Tickets from £49.50 per adult and £27.50 for kids (age 6-15). Kids under five go free. VIP tickets from £90.

https://www.pubintheparkuk.com/st-albans