Wickham Festival offers free entry to Sub Tropical Seaside Festival goers

Floods forced Show of Hands to cancel their annual signature festival on Saturday and so organisers of this year's Wickham Festival have offered ticket holders free day entry to the festival when Show of Hands play on the Saturday.

On Saturday with relentless rain lashing Dorset's Jurassic coast, roads were closed throughout the area, and so for the first time in the festival's 15 year history that the band has had to pull the plug on the event at Abbotsbury's Sub Tropical Gardens, between Bridport and Weymouth.

A special offer has now been extended to disappointed Abbotsbury ticket holders by Hampshire's Wickham Festival, where Show of Hands will perform on Saturday, 4th August.

Organisers are offering free entry to the festival on that day - a real bargain as a ticket would normally cost £50. Also on the line-up that day will be Bellowhead, Home Service, Michael McGoldrick, Steve Tilston, Jackie Oates, Jim Causley and Belshazzar's Feast, among others. The offer applies to adult, child and family tickets with the family ticket allowing entry to two adults and up to three children.

Attractions for children include a circus, cartoon cinema, digital funfair, storytelling and puppet theatre.

Those wanting to take up the offer should simply take their Abbotsbury tickets to Wickham Festival and exchange them at the box office for full day tickets.

For those unable to take up the Wickham offer, full refunds are available. To obtain a refund you should send your tickets back to Abbotsbury Tourism West Yard Barn, West Street, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JT. They must be received no later than the last post on Friday, 27th July 2012.

Show Of Hands frontman Steve Knightley said, "We were really sorry to cancel the 15th Abbotsbury concert where so many of our supporters meet up each year and where we had an outstanding line up for them but it was a totally impossible and unprecedented weather situation. But we do hope many of them will take advantage of the excellent offer from Wickham Festival next month and we’ll definitely be back at Abbotsbury in 2013."

Wickham Festival boss Peter Chegwyn added, "Show of Hands and their fans have been great supporters of our festivals over the years and we are very happy to help them in return. We know how disappointed everyone was by the cancellation at Abbotsbury but the severe weather and flooding in Dorset and Devon that day left everyone with no choice but to cancel. Hopefully by offering the choice of exchanging your Abbotsbury tickets for Wickham we can ensure that Show of Hands fans can still enjoy a great day out this summer."

For those unable to take up the Wickham offer, full refunds are available. To obtain a refund you should send your tickets back to Abbotsbury Tourism West Yard Barn, West Street, Abbotsbury, Dorset, DT3 4JT. They must be received no later than the last post on Friday, July 27.

The festival returns to the Hampshire village of Wickham, in Hampshire just east of Eastleigh and just north of Fareham and features live music and entertainment for all ages with camping.

For the line-up details, and day splits, as available please click here.

A 4-Day adult season ticket is priced at £135, with under-16s being half-price and under-10s free. Camping tickets are priced at £25 per tent or caravan for the whole weekend, and day tickets also being on sale with prices from £25 adult, £12.50 under-16s. Under-10s are free throughout.

To buy tickets, click here.

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