CRF22 will be just outside PETERBOROUGH in Cambridgeshire

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Thanks to everyone for their continued support of the CRF since 2004, we are very pleased to be able to announce that the Cambridge Rock Festival will go ahead in 2022 at a new location just outside Peterborough. We would like to give our regular supporters some insight into this change, which we think will make our great festival even better for you all!

 

CRF22 is moving up the road to the “East of England Arena and Events Centre”, previously known as the East of England Showground, Peterborough. Like all previous CRF sites, this is in Cambridgeshire! The Showground is large and multi-faceted. We will be using the Pavilion and some other areas within the Showground. Access is very easy, right by the A1. We will continue to run three fully covered stages - the Ruby stage will be housed inside the Pavillion (see image above), the Sapphire stage will be housed inside a large, adjacent structure with the Emerald stage inside our traditional large marquee opposite. We will still have broadly the same blend of classic rock, blues, progressive and acoustic music, with a few other genres thrown in!

 

Why are we changing location again?

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We hope to give you an even better experience! We will still run our own real-ale bar, but the venue will be responsible for all food. We’ll still have an outside seating area.

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The showground has hard standing for parking. All main roadways and paths are paved. Water and power is around the site. There’s a permanent toilet and shower block. There's a perimeter security fence and gates. The whole site is far more resilient against bad weather.  We’re very aware of the problems heavy rain can cause to the campsite and parking.

 

Peterborough has excellent rail and bus links.  There's a greatly improved new road from Cambridge.  As not everyone wants to camp, there’s numerous hotels around the area, providing many options for accommodation.

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Long term future

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We're looking at long term future viability. CRF doesn’t get any grants (many do!) or backing from major industry artists or publications. It’s organised throughout the year by volunteers and much of the event itself is run by volunteers. Whilst many other festivals have come and gone, we’ve kept CRF going through thick and thin and in recent years just about break even each year.

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The new site will reduce our workload. None of us are getting any younger. As well as the four days of the festival and a year of planning, our temporary site in a green field takes three weeks of effort to build and take down, much done by volunteers.

 

The Showground gives us the benefit of established infrastructure and facilities supported by a professional team.

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If you think you can help and would like to join the organising team, let us know! The future is open to debate!

 

Change of date

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This year we have been restricted as to what was available. No date will suit everyone.  The weekend we chose minimised clashes with other events that some fans and volunteers would have to choose between in 2020, since which time Covid hit us! We've had to retain the same dates as we have rolled over twice. 

 

See you at CRF22!

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We hope you understand our thinking. Please appreciate that we haven’t taken this decision lightly. All changes involve challenges, even changes for the better. We, like you, will always look back on our years at earlier venues with fondness and a feeling of great pleasure at all we’ve ALL achieved, but dates and venues have changed before. We really hope that you’ll agree the huge benefits of this site will help us secure the CRF for the future.

 

See you at Peterborough!

 

Dave and the CRF Steering Group

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