Nottingham Riverside Festival returns for 2025 this week: Here's everything you need to know

The Nottingham Riverside Festival is returning to the city’s Victoria Embankment this week.

The popular event, which attracted 250,000 people in 2023, is set to return to the banks of the River Trent in just a few days time.

Since the first event in 1973, millions of visitors have flocked to the Victoria Embankment each August for a weekend of family fun.

However, in 2024 the festival was scaled back due to financial pressures on Nottingham City Council.

This meant that popular features such as fireworks and live music were scrapped.

At the time, organisers committed to making the festival “cost neutral”.

But what can we expect from this year’s Riverside Festival?

Below we’ve rounded up all the key information:

When is it happening?

The 2025 Riverside Festival will take place between Friday, August 1 and Sunday, August 3.

Will there be fireworks and live music?

Sadly, it doesn’t look like this year’s festival will feature fireworks or live music.

Nottingham City Council has now confirmed that there are no plans to reinstate these elements of the festival for 2025.

What will be going on?

We know that the festival will feature a funfair when it returns this week.

Mellors Group, which runs Nottingham Beach and Nottingham Winter Wonderland, has confirmed that it will once again be operating the funfair at the Riverside Festival.