Hillsborough parkrun forced to cancel until Tramlines festival repair work is finished

  • Festival goers make the most of the mud at Tramlines in July.

  • Credit: Lee Gathercole/Emily Hartley/Joe Wingate

A weekly parkrun event has been forced to cancel until further notice due to ongoing repair work at its usual venue following a music festival being held there.

The Hillsborough Park event in Sheffield happens every Saturday, but in a statement on its website the event organisers said they were having to cancel their "wonderful" event for safety reasons.

The problems have been caused by long-running repair work to the park's grass following the Tramlines music festival which was held there in July.

Heavy rain at the event which saw thousands of people attend caused the ground to churn up, with festival-goers seen sliding through the mud. The problem was further compounded by heavy machinery being used to take down the festival infrastructure down.

Heavy machinery used to take down the festival caused further damage to the ground.

In their heartfelt statement, Hillsborough parkrun organisers Caroline and John said: "We cannot count the hours we have spent over the past few weeks visiting the park, writing and responding to emails, measuring our temporary course, developing risk assessments, and corresponding with Sheffield City Council, Tramlines, parkrun HQ and concerned parkrunners and other members of the community."

They said they were "thrilled" to get the event back on last Saturday, 12 August, but have had to "admit defeat" due to the fencing being moved leaving protruding feet which are "too much of a trip hazard for us to ignore".

"We are so sorry," the statement continued. "We have done all we can but it wasn’t enough. We are beaten. We don’t know how long the fences will be in situ, but we hope to see you all on the other side when the route is safe.

"We understand this will be some time in September, we don’t know when yet, but we’ll publish the details as soon as we do."

  • Park users react to the state of the grass after the festival.

Tramlines festival, which is paying for all the repairs to the park, has previously said that repair work has been hampered by unseasonal bad weather in August and therefore couldn't specify a finish date for the work.

"We are committed to returning the park to its proper condition which does mean that work will take more time to complete," a statement said.

"This is taken very seriously by our entire management team. We have committed the resources necessary to achieve this as quickly as possible for the Hillsborough Community. 

"We are in touch with local stakeholders and continue to update them on park repair progress."

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