09 Sep 2025
It was last orders for Tom Kerridge’s popular Pub in the Park last weekend, as the food and music festival held its final event in St Albans’ Verulamium Park.
Launched in 2019, the festival has seen music from the likes of Kaiser Chiefs, Mel C, Will Young, All Saints, Paloma Faith, Sophie Ellis Bextor and this year’s headliners Dizzee Rascal and Squeeze.
It has also showcased an array of celebrity chefs including Matt Tebbutt, James Martin, Cyrus Todiwala, Atul Kochhar, Candice Brown and Ainsley Harriott.
But now the organisers are pulling the plug on all Pub in the Park events apart from the one held in Tom Kerridge’s hometown of Marlow, with a new festival taking their place.
Sound Bites promises “bold eats, flowing drinks and DJs and bands chosen to lift the energy and keep people connected”, and is expected to take place from September 4-6 2026.
Chris Hughes, one of the festival’s founders, shared a message for the local community: “St Albans is a great festival town. Sound Bites is being designed with St Albans in mind after lots of helpful feedback and research. We’re saying goodbye to a name, not the feeling. Sound Bites will carry that same magic into the future.”
All pictures by St Albans Times photographer John Andrews. Check out this week’s issue for hundreds more!
