Key dates for the next Preston Guild confirmed
The exact dates for the next Preston Guild have been announced.
The historic event takes place every 20 years - with the next one being due in 2032.
It has now been confirmed that Guild week will run from Saturday 28th August until Sunday 5th September that year.
The ‘Guild Court of the Guild Merchant’ will formally open on the morning of Bank Holiday Monday, 30th August - as centuries of tradition dictates that this occurs on the Monday after the feast of the Decollation of St. John the Baptist. It lies at the heart of the Guild and its ceremony follows an ancient tradition.
Dates for the colourful processions, which form a key part of the week, have also been set out. They will be themed around trade (28th August), churches (30th August, following the Guild Court), community (3rd September 2032) and torchlight (evening of 4th September).
Meanwhile, the Guild mayoral thanksgiving service will take place on 5th September.
The details have emerged from a report to be presented to the inaugural meeting of Preston City Council’s 2032 Guild Committee next week.
The cross-party group - which is responsible for making preparations for the 850-year-old Guild festival - has been convened some three years earlier than would usually be the case.
As the Local Democracy Reporting Service previously revealed, planning for the 2032 Guild is getting under way now - because the city council is likely to have been abolished by the time the work would normally be beginning. Under government plans, the authority is set to be subsumed into a larger body from 2028.
Deputy council leader Martyn Rawlinson told the council’s budget meeting back in February that, against that backdrop, it was necessary “to make a statement that Preston Guild must go ahead”.
The committee meeting next week will also hear that there is currently £1.2m in the reserve fund for the 2032 Guild - made up of £1m that was deposited shortly after the last event in 2012 and the 0.5 percent of council tax which has been added each year since 2023/24. That arrangement is set to continue - on a cumulative basis - through until the Guild itself.
Depending on variables such as the council tax base - and also whether and how any successor authority to Preston City Council proceeds with the policy - it is estimated that between £5m and £5.2m will be in the Guild kitty by 2032.
The 10-day event cost £5.4m to stage last time around and Cllr Rawlinson has previously forecast that around double that amount would probably be required for the 2032 festivities, which he said should be “bigger and better than ever before”.
Financial contributions are also likely to come from grants, sponsorship and revenue from merchandise.
The first Preston Guild can be traced back to 1179 following King Henry II’s decision to draw up a royal charter for the city and award it with the right to have a Guild Merchant.
The events became once-in-two-decade affairs from 1542 onwards and have been staged rigidly to that timetable ever since – save for a war-enforced absence in 1942. That year’s Guild was eventually held a decade late, before returning to the usual pattern.