Free ice cream for the first 400, from noon on Saturday 29 August at Hamlin Lane. It launches a £20m, 10-year plan for Heavitree East and Whipton South.

The first Whipton and Heavitree Festival runs from noon to 4pm on Saturday 29 August at Hamlin Lane Playing Fields, and the first 400 people through the gate get a free ice cream.

Exeter City Council says the programme includes music, escape room boxes, art demonstrations, skateboarding and sports activities. Prodigy Escapes is running the escape room experiences and the street artist Steve McCracken is involved. (Exeter City Council, New festival offers free ice-cream to first 400 attendees, 18 August 2026)

The council added that more detail would follow in the run-up to the bank holiday weekend, so the full timings within the afternoon had not been published when we checked on Sunday.

The practical details

  • When: Saturday 29 August, noon to 4pm, the Saturday of the August bank holiday weekend
  • Where: Hamlin Lane Playing Fields, Exeter EX1 3AG
  • Cost: the council release names no admission charge, and the ice cream is free to the first 400 arrivals
  • On site: the playing fields have a car park, changing rooms and a children’s play area, as pictured above

The postcode is the one the council itself uses for the playing fields in its estates notices. (Exeter City Council, Public open space disposal, Hamlin Lane)

The £20 million behind it

The festival is the public start of something considerably larger. The government has allocated £20 million over ten years to the area under the Pride in Place programme, and the council describes the festival as celebrating the area that now falls under that banner.

One detail is worth getting right, because the two names are not identical. The council’s press release calls it the Whipton and Heavitree area. Its own programme pages are narrower and name the funded neighbourhood as Heavitree East and Whipton South. (Exeter City Council, Pride in Place) The council’s key-dates page says the new board will itself review the neighbourhood boundaries, so where the line falls is not yet settled.

The money is not a lump sum to be spent this year. A Neighbourhood Board of residents, community organisations, businesses, education and faith groups, councillors and the local MP is being formed to write a ten-year plan, and that plan is what decides where the money goes.

Timeline of Pride in Place milestones: board appointed by 26 August 2026, festival on 29 August, ten-year plan by 26 February 2027, community-led delivery by year three.
Source: Exeter City Council Pride in Place key dates and Neighbourhood Board pages. Chart by The Exeter Times.

Andy Mulcock chairs the board. He said the festival is “a fantastic opportunity to bring people of all ages and backgrounds together from across the area”, and that extending the board’s understanding of the two neighbourhoods is an immediate priority as its work gets under way. The funding was secured following work by the Exeter MP, Steve Race, who said the festival is “a core part of kick-starting Exeter’s £20m Pride in Place project” and that he hoped it would become an annual event.

Applications to join the board closed on 31 July, and the council’s own timetable expects the chair and members to be appointed by 26 August, three days before the festival. (Exeter City Council, Pride in Place key dates) No membership list had been published on the council’s board members page when we checked.

What it means for you

If you live in Heavitree or Whipton, Saturday is the first chance to put something to the people who will be writing the ten-year plan, rather than reading about it afterwards. The plan is due by 26 February 2027, and the council says it will set out how the money is used across the first four years. Once that is signed off, the broad shape of the spending is fixed for a long time.

The council has published a route for getting involved outside the festival too. Its Pride in Place pages promise community conversations, engagement events and targeted work with groups that are rarely heard from, and board enquiries go to PrideinPlace@exeter.gov.uk. (Exeter City Council, Have your say) Board papers and minutes are supposed to be published as the programme develops, which is where the spending decisions will become checkable.

If you are driving across the city for it, our Exeter roadworks and travel page carries the closures live that weekend.

We will report the board’s membership when the council publishes it, and the ten-year plan when it is consulted on.