Best of Burnley Festival heading to Turf Moor

Burnley Football Club wants to use its Premier League status to promote the town and its achievements to an international audience.

“We want to celebrate how proud we are of Burnley,” said the club’s commercial director Anthony Fairclough. “The last time we were in the Premier League and we had this global platform, we didn’t shout out about how good Burnley is, about the people, the industry, the food, the culture. This time we are going to.”

The festival, which is being supported by the Burnley Express, will take place before Burnley’s crunch clash with Leicester on Saturday, April 25th and will feature stalls, demonstrations, competitions and entertainment.

“We’ve chosen the Leicester game because it’s going to be a huge game with 20,000 plus people coming on. We want to show how proud we are of not just Burnley but Lancashire as a whole.

“We don’t want it to just be stalls though, we want it to be interesting for the punters. There’s going to be entertainment on throughout the day, including the Milltown Brothers, and there will be plenty to do for everyone.”

The club wants to transform Harry Potts Way into a Wembley Way-style avenue with wooden huts lining the side of road showing the best Burnley has to offer.

“We’re in the process of trying to get permission to use Harry Potts Way. Hopefully we can but if not we’ll put a huge fanzone in the car park.

“The stalls are similar to the ones you see at Manchester Christmas Markets. There’s an interesting synergy there as well as they are actually being provided by Big Kahuna Huts, a firm which was set up with help from the Prince’s Trust.”

Thirty four businesses have already signed up and Mr Fairclough is expecting more.

“There’s still room for more and if anybody is interested in having a stall they just need to get in touch with us.”