Three more dog festivals for Pugs, Pomeranians and more coming to Northampton

A further three dog festivals will be held in Northampton this year.

Pomeranians, Shih Tzus, Pugs and French Bulls will join Chihuahuas in having a festival dedicated to them this summer and there will be a separate event for all other breeds.

The Dog Town festivals, which include beauty pageants, ‘silly races’, show rings, vendors and more dog activities, have been running since 2017.

Before this year the events were held at various sports grounds in Milton Keynes, but this year the festivals will be hosted at Billing Aquadrome.

Kerry Brooks, who co-owns the festival business, said: “The previous venues weren’t enough.

“Before we even started selling our tickets people were booking out pet-friendly hotels so Billing is a really good option.

“We wanted somewhere different and people come from all over. We have people who come from as far as America.

“We wanted to make sure it was somewhere people could stay and somewhere not too far from us as we have some much stuff to bring.

“Billing has a number of pet-friendly caravans anyway but they’re going to make them all pet-friendly for the weekend we are there.

“And they’re giving us discount codes as well, so they’ve been brilliant.”

PomTown and Shih TzuTown will be held on the same. Pugs and French Bull Dogs will also share a day, but all breeds get their own races and pageants.

Chihuahua Town, which is the biggest festival, will be held separately, as will DogTown (the festival for all other breeds).

At all of the events there will be photography, shopping and splash pools for pooches to cool down in, as well as all the activities.

The theme for ChihuahuaTown is ‘fairy tales and mythical creatures’, but for all the other festivals it is ‘wonderland’ and there will be a ‘mad hatter’ relay race.

ChihuahuaTown has a different theme as this breed has already had a ‘wonderland’ festival, due to Chihuahuas being the very start of the adventure for Kerry and her co-owner Sam Goldsmith.

Kerry explained: “We both did interior design at college where we met, but we’ve both gone on to do nothing to do with interior design.

“Sam has always been into dog showing, like Crufts and I’ve always had a million dogs.

“I’ve been doing photography for 16 years.

“We love what we are doing and we would love to get into specific areas.

“They always say never work with animals or children but it’s my favourite thing to work with both at the same time. They make for the cutest pictures.

“Sam was making dog clothes and accessories and breeding Chihuahuas.

“So we set up an event for local Chihuahua owners as we thought those are the people who most pamper their dogs.

“We thought we would maybe 200 people there, but within a couple of weeks we had to extend the venue. We got 1,000 people.

“It got very big very quickly.”

Since then the venture has gone from strength to strength as last year’s ChihuahuaTown Wonderland attracted 1,400 visitors and last year's Chihuahua event saw 1,000 turn up.

Kerry says the only negativity they face is when people say ‘they don’t like to see dogs in clothes'.

She explained: “Fancy dress and pageants take up a small part of the day and clothes aren’t part of the rest of the day.

“We say a jazzed up bow tie is fine but some people like to go big with costumes.”

Festival dates and tickets information

(All these events will be held at Billing Aquadrome)

ChihuahuaTown - Saturday June 6. Tickets on sale now.

DogTown - Saturday July 25. Tickets on sale now.

PomTown and Shih TzuTown - Saturday August 8. Tickets will go on sale once enough interest is registered on the Facebook page.

PugTown and FrenchieTown - Saturday September 12. Tickets will go on sale in March, date to be confirmed.

For more information visit the DogTown website.