Festival-goers banned from bringing barbecues

A music festival has barred punters from bringing barbecues, to reduce the risk of wildfires as the hot weather continues.

Bosses of Herefordshire's Lakefest 2026, which is under way until Sunday, said wind in the hills surrounding the site could easily take sparks and set tinder-dry undergrowth ablaze.

Increased "medic provision" and security has also been put in place at the festival at Eastnor Castle, it added.

The move comes after the Environment Agency last week declared the West Midlands and six other areas in England were in drought, after "record low rain and exceptionally high temperatures".

Rivers were running low, farmers were having to harvest crops early and wildfire risk was increasing, the agency said.

Andy Winmill, director of the festival at Eastnor Castle near Ledbury, said staff had worked very closely with the fire service and other agencies to help ensure the event runs safely.

Winmill said the move "to stop people bringing barbecues onto site" was "not just [forced by] the dry weather"..

"A little bit of wind, which we experience as well when we're up here in the hills, can take sparks and obviously create a fire as well," he said.

"So we've had to stop charcoal barbecues. Also, the disposable barbecues that you can sometimes buy, we've stopped those as well, because these don't stop once you've stopped cooking.

"They carry on and the heat carries on."

Earlier, the festival director said he was standing "in a slightly damp field" after "a little bit of rain overnight".

But this has "now stopped and if we understand the Met Office, it's going to be dry for the next two weeks", he explained.

"So we still have to keep the contingencies that we've put into place," he added.

Winmill said the heat was "no longer an inconvenience for sort of outdoor festivals", it had become "quite a core safety operational issue over the past few years and more so this year".

"When you're sort of building a town for four days, the size of a town, you've obviously got to take everyone's safety into consideration," he said.

"[We've worked] very, very closely with Herefordshire Council and all the agencies surrounding it, the fire, the police, the ambulance.

"You've got 20,000 people in a field, [and] we want everybody to have a good time.

"We've done everything to make sure that everybody is protected and safe."

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