The Tewkesbury Medieval Festival re-enacts the Battle of Tewkesbury of 4 May 1471, the Wars of the Roses engagement in which Edward IV’s Yorkists destroyed the Lancastrian army and killed Edward, Prince of Wales. It is held on the second full weekend of July on fields next to the Bloody Meadow, part of the original battlefield, beside Tewkesbury Leisure Centre (postcode GL20 5SX).
The battle re-enactment takes place each afternoon (Saturday at 4pm, Sunday at 3pm) and lasts about an hour, with cannon and black-powder bangs. Around it are living-history camps run by re-enactment groups, a traders’ field of up to 120 market stalls, craft demonstrations, a storyteller’s garden, musicians and street performers. Since the early 2000s the festival has drawn around 2,000 re-enactors. On Saturday evening the ‘beheading of the traitors’ is staged at Tewkesbury Abbey, and on Sunday at 11.15am the armies parade through the town centre.
The festival was founded in 1984 by Len and Peggy Clatworthy and others and is run by a volunteer organisation, the Companions of the Black Bear. It is free to enter; the main cost is parking at £10 per car per day (cash only) in the official festival car parks. Guided battlefield walks are offered over the weekend.
Well-behaved dogs on short leads are welcome. The site is a field, so expect mud in wet years and bring sun protection otherwise. The 2026 edition was held 11–12 July; the organisers have already published 10–11 July 2027 for the next one.
