Free Midsummer Festival

On Saturday 23rd June, Milton Keynes City Council is holding the city’s first ever, family-friendly Midsummer Festival. Everyone is invited to celebrate the summer solstice with a fun-packed free programme of music, maypoles, magic and more. Midsummer Boulevard is famously aligned with the path of the sun at summer solstice, which in traditional folklore is celebrated on the night of 23 June.

From 10am to 10.30pm, Midsummer Boulevard East will be transformed into Festival central for a free event inspired by traditional midsummer themes of renewal, healing, and health. There will be a wide range of music, street theatre, and folklore-inspired art taking place alongside free making workshops. Pop-up street food curated by local blogger Sophie etc will be available throughout the day and into the evening, with the event ending with a parade to the Light Pyramid in Campbell Park.

Midsummer Boulevard East will be closed to traffic to allow festival goers and event production teams to use the site safely. Road closure signs will be in place to redirect motorists, and buses that usually drop off and pick up on Midsummer Boulevard East will instead do so outside The Point on Lower Tenth Street. It looks to be a great free event for the whole city.

Find the full programme and approximate timings alongside details of the temporary changes to bus stops at www.milton-keynes.gov.uk/midsummer-fest

How you can get involved with our city’s future

MK City Council is working with a theatre company on an innovative way to help local people share their experiences about living in Milton Keynes. The creative partnership between the city council, theatre company Speak Up! Act Out! and public health experts Ben Caves Associates is part of the development of the MK City Plan 2050, which is an important planning document that will be submitted to the Secretary of State next year.

Each local authority has a ‘local plan’ for their area, to help guide how future development can support the needs of citizens and businesses. One of the topics to be considered is how future changes can have an impact on the health of residents and communities. The city council has been asking local people for their feedback to help shape the Plan, and more than 2,000 have so far had their say through online surveys and face to face events.

Creative workshops run by Speak Up! Act Out! are being planned for June. They’ll be a mixture of practical activities and discussions where local people can share stories and their experiences of life in Milton Keynes, with a focus on their health and wellbeing. Coming together to create a final presentation of the feedback in September which may be in the form of a film, illustrations or even an exhibition – people participating in the workshops will decide.

Local people are welcome to register their interest in taking part or ask questions about the workshops by emailing Angela from Speak Up! Act Out! at speakactforum@gmail.com

The MK City Plan 2050 will take forward Milton Keynes City Council’s Strategy for 2050 which set out a bold and ambitious vision for MK over the next 28 years, including equal opportunities for all, ‘lifelong’ homes that suit people at all stages of their life, and a pioneering mass rapid transit system.

A first draft will be published in July for comments. Once approved by the Secretary of State, it will take over from the city council’s award-winning previous local plan.