'We want people to feel like they’re walking into Disneyland': The huge new festival coming to fields near Hale

Anthony Prophet is looking out across a stunning sea of green grass, with the rooftops of Hale village bobbing out on the horizon. In six weeks time Anthony and brother Ed will be transforming 120 acres of fields here with a brand new festival that they believe will 'bring a bit of magic' with it.

It's just a five minute walk into the centre of Hale from the Ashley Hall Showground that we're walking around today. Which is why the Prophet brothers believe their Brit Fest has such huge potential as a festival here.

The event will run across three days with a music lineup including Bonnie Tyler, Scouting For Girls, Fleur East, Starsailor, Toploader and Kim Wilde. But, aside from the music stages, there will also be a full on family festival taking place, as well as a food village and health and wellness zones and a huge fairground too.

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Anthony says: "Our job has always been to exceed people’s expectations. When people arrive and walk in here in July it will be 'wow'.

"We want people to feel like they’re walking into Disneyland when they come here, it’s going to be all about the experience of the whole thing."

Anthony, 43, and Ed, 39, have a long background in putting on live music and theatre events, and run the Bowdon Rooms just down the road from here in Bowdon. While they've been involved in small scale festivals before, this is their most ambitious project to date.

"It’s more than just the music," says Anthony. "There will be Tinker Town for kids, a huge funfair and then there's the Taste Cheshire village with 40 artisan makers.

"Then we'll have a big wheel too. It's almost like this site was purposely made here for festivals because it will work so beautifully. We'll be setting the stage up so that each night the sun will set just behind the stage, it's going to be stunning."

He adds: "It's going to be a really good family friendly festival, some people might just come for the food, or for the fair, as much as for the incredible music lineup we've got on the bill. It’s not your school fete, nor is it your Parklife - it's a magical creation because of the world we're in here."

The festival site is all based on the Ashley Hall Showground owned by Tatton Estates. There is still a historic hall at the centre of the site, but this is now used as office space, while outbuildings here have been used for a number of TV productions in recent years including the Worst Witch and 2019 movie Tolkien.

The site was used by a smaller festival a couple of years back, but never for a "festival of this scale", says Anthony. The grand has been being prepared for the past 18 months to get the first Brit Fest off the ground.

"The site we're using is 120 acres. but the whole site is 250 acres - you could do a Knebworth here," smiles Anthony.

"We'll start building seven days before and we can't wait."

Tickets for the event can be purchased for each day, or for the full weekend across July 5 - 7. There's also the option for camping, glamping or parking at the site.

Special bus services will also be running from Altrincham to the site, and also from Ashley through to Knutsford across the weekend.

Both Anthony and Ed, who grew up in Sale, still live locally, and they hope the festival will bring a boost for local businesses too. Popular woodland retreat Into The Wild will be hosting special events across the weekend, which is just a short walk across the fields from the festival site.

They hope bars and restaurants in Hale village are also set to benefit with hundreds of festival goers set to travel in via the Hale train station stop and then make the short walk along Ashley Road to the showground. Hale Civic Society are making plans for performers to create a "festival vibe" in the town too over the weekend.

Anthony says: "Everyone is embracing the tie up, and this is why we think it's such a great location as a festival for Manchester and Cheshire. You can head on the train or the bus, and then you're in all this beautiful countryside.

"We want to show you can have a proper countryside festival on the end of a train line."

The festival can host over 30,000 revellers over the course of the weekend. Day tickets start from £67 plus booking fee and full Weekend Tickets from £165 plus booking fee with all booking info here.

The music stages will be hosted by Hits Radio DJ Mike Toolan and TV star Jenny Powell across the weekend. Friday July 5 will see performances from bands including Scouting for Girls, Cast, The Feeling, Starsailor, Dodgy and Reef.

Saturday's revels on July 6 continue with an 80s-themed vibe to the music with a headlining performance from Bonnie Tyler and acts including Kim Wilde, Nik Kershaw, Paul Young, T'Pau and Sonia.

Sunday July 7 rounds out the festival and features stars including Heather Small, Fleur East, Tunde Baiyewu, Toploader, The Bluetones and The Christians.