Jousting, archery and live entertainment to take over Sherwood Forest at Robin Hood Festival

The Robin Hood Festival will take over the new visitor centre at Sherwood Forest for another instalment of exciting entertainment - with a promise of thrilling live action.

Hosted by the RSPB and its partners, the festival is a week-long celebration of Robin Hood, filled with medieval-themed entertainment, activities and a host of costumed characters and entertainers - offering something special for the whole family.

This year the festival welcomes equestrian stunt team Cavalry of Heroes for the first time, which has designed an exciting Robin Hood show for the event and will be performing in the Grand Tournament three times a day throughout the week.

The show will feature Robin Hood, Maid Marian and the Merry Men, battling against the Sheriff of Nottingham, with sword fights, archery, horse-back stunts and jousting all part of the action.

There will be a further four stages set around the forest, filled with the usual mix of merriment, music and story-telling which attracts 40,000 people to this event every year.

It will take place from Monday, August 5 to Sunday, August 11, with events held daily throughout the week and a festival party on the Sunday.

Gemma Howarth, RSPB senior site manager for Sherwood Forest, said: “We're really excited about bringing jousting back to the event this year, and introducing Cavalry of Heroes to our festival goers for the first time.

"They are an amazing group of performers and will add a whole new dimension to the Robin Hood story this year.

“The new, state of the art, visitor centre offers the perfect welcome to visitors while they take a break, grab some lunch and their Robin Hood gifts, between visiting the many shows and entertainment that take place throughout each day.

“In terms of the site, we’ve introduced a few new features this year, such as having contactless card machines in the car park for festival week, to help ensure we bring traffic on-site quickly and efficiently.

"We want everyone to have a great experience when they visit Sherwood.”