Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 21:20:00

When BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend rolled into Norwich in 2015, it was Earlham Park that hosted the crowds of around fifty thousand who came to see Muse, Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift across the May bank-holiday weekend. That landmark event confirmed the park's status as the city's go-to site for large outdoor concerts and festivals. Set on Earlham Road on the western edge of Norwich, the park adjoins the campus of the University of East Anglia and forms part of a broad swathe of green space running down to the River Yare. Its open meadows and gently sloping ground make it well suited to temporary stages and festival infrastructure. Beyond its showpiece moments, the park has hosted travelling festivals and entertainment such as the Rock 'n' Roll Circus, bringing big-top shows and live music to the grounds, as well as community and university events through the year. For most of the calendar, however, it functions as everyday parkland for walkers, students and families. As an open-air venue, large events are staged under temporary licensing with bars, catering and facilities installed for each occasion, and its proximity to the university provides ready access to transport, parking and accommodation. The combination of scale and a city-edge location has made it attractive to major promoters. With the UEA campus, the Sainsbury Centre and the river all close at hand, Earlham Park sits within one of Norwich's most important green and cultural corridors. Whether hosting a national broadcast festival or a quiet weekday stroll, it remains a key part of the city's outdoor life. Owned and managed by the city council, the park forms part of a green corridor that includes the neighbouring University of East Anglia grounds and the Yare valley marshes, popular with walkers and cyclists year round. Its capacity to absorb very large crowds, demonstrated by the Radio 1 weekend, has kept it on the shortlist whenever a major outdoor event comes to the east of England.