What is the Festival of Hunting?
The Festival of Hunting is the annual showcase for the world of hunting - a 'sport' that was banned in 2005. Hounds representing packs from across the UK will be at the Peterborough venue on Wednesday 17 July for the annual celebration of a sport made illegal nearly 20 years ago, and we want to see it end.
This year the Festival of Hunting has changed its name to the Festival of Hounds.
Rebranding this event won’t change the fact that this festival is all about celebrating an illegal activity. This is just an exercise to sanitise the brutal world of foxhunting that the festival showcases.
You can’t rebrand cruelty.
Hunts claim they are ‘trail’ hunting, but every season we see report after report that this is nothing but a sham and a smokescreen - a cover for old fashioned illegal hunting.
In 2023 ITV News exposed horrendous footage of the Avon Vale Hunt digging out foxes and throwing them to waiting hounds, while Channel 4 News worked with Cirencester Illegal Hunt Watch to expose a terrified fox founded bagged and buried alive at the meeting of the Cotswold Hunt.
Join us in Peterborough to Raise Awareness
We'll be informing the public that this festival of cruelty continues here in Peterborough. This shouldn't be happening in 2024.
Get Involved
Statistics for the 2023-2024 season released by the League Against Cruel Sports in June 2024 show nearly 1,400 incidents related to hunting, comprising 526 reports of suspected illegal hunting and 870 reports of hunt havoc. This is a huge increase on the 982 incidents recorded during the same period the season before.
It is time for change.
It is time this festival was cancelled.
Time for change: no more fox hunting
Those in government must improve the law and make England and Wales a hunting free zone
Take action