Pic: The big winners from the 2017 RiverFest final on the River Wye: Mike Bedding (1st, centre £13,000 ), Sean Ashby (3rd, left, £4,000), Same Merry (2nd, right, £6,000)
Tickets for the UK’s biggest river fishing competition will go on sale from Monday 26th March. Four new venues have been added to this year’s line up with qualifiers on the; River Trent at Burton Joyce, the River Thames on both Abingdon to Appleford and at Reading and finally the North Bank of the River Nene.
The final will take place on the Famous River Severn at Shrewsbury over the weekend of 3rd and 4th of November and, in case of high water, the same venue has been booked for three consecutive reserve weekends after these dates.
The 24 qualifying matches will see 1,440 anglers competing for a shot at the £13,000 top prize from a prize pot of almost £40,000! Subject to all tickets being sold, RiverFest 2018 will see 10 main prizes in the final ranging from £1000 for 10th place, up to a cool £13,000 to the winner. Six peg section prizes of £250 will also be paid out for both of the final days.
This year we have commissioned Catch More Media to film the two final days and we’re also planning to film some of the qualifiers.
HOW TO BOOK TICKETS
Tickets for the 60 peg qualifiers will be sold via the Angling Trust Events booking website HERE . Due to the incredibly high demand the Angling Trust has introduced a process that ensures all anglers who want to fish in the competition can book at least one ticket for a qualifier.
Tickets will be released in two rounds:
• Round One – Opens 10.30am on Monday 26th March until midnight on Thursday 5th April and anglers will be able to book a maximum of ONE ticket per angler during this round.
• Round Two – Opens 10.30am on Thursday 12th April and remain open until the final qualifier at the end of October (NO TICKET RESTRICTIONS)
Cancellations will be re-listed in the online system and sold on a first come first served basis. The remaining tickets of qualifying anglers will go back on sale every Monday at 1pm.
The Angling Trust has a ‘How to Book RiverFest Tickets’ guide here and a short video available here.
The online booking system is continually updated. Members are encouraged to visit the site and familiarise themselves with how it works prior to Monday 26th March.
ANGLING TRUST RIVERFEST 2018 – QUALIFYING DATES AND VENUES
SAT JUNE 16th – RIVER CALDER, MIRFIELD
SAT JUNE 23rd – RIVER SWALE, MORTON
SAT JUNE 30th – RIVER WEAVER, NORTHWICH
SUN JULY 1st – RIVER NENE, NORTH BANK
SAT JULY 14th – RIVER MEDWAY, BARMING
SUN JULY 15th – RIVER TYNE, CORBRIDGE TO WYLAM
SUN JULY 29th – BRISTOL AVON, NEWBRIDGE TO SALTFORD
SAT AUGUST 4th – RIVER THAMES, CLANFIELD
SUN AUGUST 5th – RIVER SOAR, LOUGHBOROUGH
SUN AUGUST 12th – RIVER YARE, LANGLEY
SAT AUGUST 25th – RIVER DON, SPROTBOROUGH
SAT SEPTEMBER 1st – RIVER SEVERN, BEWDLEY
SUN SEPTEMBER 2nd – RIVER TRENT, BURTON JOYCE
SUN SEPTEMBER 9th – TIDAL TRENT, LAUGHTERTON TO DUNHAM
SAT SEPTEMBER 15th – RIVER THAMES, ABINGDON TO APPLEFORD
SAT SEPTEMBER 22nd – RIVER SEVERN, BRIDGNORTH
SUN SEPTEMBER 23rd – RIVER DEE, HOLT AND FARNDON
SAT SEPTEMBER 29th – RIVER THAMES, READING
SUN SEPTEMBER 30th – WARWICKSHIRE AVON, STRATFORD
SAT OCTOBER 6th – RIVER TEES, YARM
SUN OCTOBER 7th – WARWICKSHIRE AVON, WARWICK
SAT OCTOBER 13th – RIVER TRENT, BURTON
SUN OCTOBER 14th – RIVER WYE, HEREFORD
SAT OCTOBER 27th – YORKS OUSE, HUNTERS LODGE TO LINTON-ON-OUSE.
FINAL – SAT 3rd AND SUN 4th NOVEMBER RIVER SEVERN AT SHREWSBURY
RESERVE FINAL DATES
10th and 11th November
17th and 18th November
24th and 25th November
KEY DATES
• 26th March – 5th April: Round One opens – max ONE ticket per angler.
• 12th April – 24th October: Round Two opens – No restrictions on the number of tickets that can be purchased.
• 16th June – Qualifier 1 River Calder
• 3rd and 4th November – RiverFest Final
For any assistance or queries on booking tickets please call 0115 822 4532 or email Kirsty.Marshall@anglingtrust.net.
