Tynemouth Priory hosts the food festival on 5 and 6 September, 10am to 5pm. Tickets £5, under-16s free, and the nearest parking is capped at two hours.

Tynemouth Food Festival returns to Tynemouth Priory and Castle on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September, running from 10am to 5pm on both days. Advance tickets are on sale now. North Tyneside Council, which organises the event, confirmed the dates on 20 August.

Advance tickets are £5 for adults, plus a booking fee, and guarantee entry on the day. Children aged 15 and under go free when they come with an adult. Tickets are sold through See Tickets.

What is on

The council says the weekend will bring street food traders and pop-up bars, artisan market stalls, music and family entertainment, with space to sit and eat. The children’s activities it has named are:

  • cooking classes with Fun Little Foodies
  • craft and messy play with ARTventurers
  • family yoga with Shore Yoga
  • face painting
  • drop-in sports activities
  • recycling crafts

The parking, and the two-hour catch

The announcement does not mention parking, and on the Tynemouth headland that is the detail worth knowing before you set off. Every figure below comes from North Tyneside Council’s own record for each site.

The closest spaces are the 87 on-street bays on Front Street, about 250 metres from the Priory gates. They are also the ones you cannot use for a day out. The council’s record sets a two-hour maximum with no return within four hours, charged at 2p a minute, 9am to 5.30pm every day, and payable by coin or mobile only. The festival runs for seven hours.

The three car parks on the headland itself are a five-minute walk away and have no maximum stay. All three charge on Saturdays and Sundays only, 9am to 6pm.

Car park Spaces All day Payment
Percy Park 31 £4.80 Card or phone only
Percy Park Road 33 £4.80 Coin, card or phone
Seafield View 32 £4.80 Coin or phone, no card

All three start at £1.20 for an hour. Seafield View is the awkward one: the council lists coin or mobile payment only, so a bank card will not work there.

That is 96 spaces for a two-day festival. The nearest overflow is Beaconsfield car park on Grand Parade, which is much bigger at 190 standard bays, seven disabled bays and six EV charging bays, but it is at the Cullercoats end of the seafront, a little over a mile north of the Priory. It charges every day, 9am to 6pm, £4.80 for the day, card or mobile only, and Blue Badge holders and motorcycles park free.

By Metro, Tynemouth station is about 500 metres from the Priory, a walk of roughly ten minutes. As of 22 August, Nexus lists no planned engineering work on the coast line for that weekend on its travel updates page. That can change, so check again before you travel.

What it means for you

  • Buy in advance. The council says the £5 advance ticket guarantees entry on the day, which implies capacity is finite.
  • Do not plan to park on Front Street. Two hours will not cover the festival, and the no-return rule stops you moving and coming back.
  • Take coins for Seafield View, or a card for Percy Park. They do not take the same payment.
  • Blue Badge holders get the better deal at Beaconsfield, where parking is free, than on the headland, where it is not.
  • The Priory is a separate paid English Heritage site. Parts of it are shut: English Heritage says the Choir, Chapel and Presbytery areas are closed for essential maintenance and it is discounting admission by 30% while that lasts. The temporary VAT cut on days out, which it has been passing on in full, ends on 1 September, four days before the festival.

More on the coast’s car parks and their rules is on our parking in Whitley Bay page, and coast line timetables are on our Metro times page.