The Head of BBC Radio 2 has promised to ‘bring the party to all of Preston’ when the radio station’s annual festival arrives in Moor Park.

Helen Thomas, speaking to Blog Preston ahead of the Radio 2 In The Park festival, said they would be broadcasting and ‘creating moments’ across the city in the days leading up to the festival itself.

The festival, now expanded to three-days with the addition of the Radio 2 DJs pre-party on the Friday evening, is expected to see more than 60,000 music fans enjoy the likes of Travis, Pet Shop Boys, Sting, Craig David, Manic Street Preachers, Pixie Lott and many more from Friday 6 September through to Sunday 8 September.

Read more: BBC Radio 2 In The Park – how to get there, banned items and timings

Ms Thomas who took on the role of head of station in May 2020 says the presenters will be out and about in the city and ‘highly visible’ during the weekend itself.

She told Blog Preston: “We know from when we went to Leicester last year just how much people value and love the chance to see our presenters.

“There will be lots of outside broadcasting going on, as well as other things taking place where our presenters are out in the city.

“I don’t want to give too much away but we had Jeremy Vine broadcasting live from a pub last year in Leicester and that had such a good response. As well as Jo Whiley at The Ferret we will be having broadcasting and other events happening involving presenters. It was such good fun when we did that in Leicester so we want to do it again, definitely, and I’m sure Preston won’t disappoint.”

Throughout the weekend itself the Radio 2 DJs are broadcasting live for the majority of the weekend from the Moor Park festival site itself.

Helen said: “What struck us when we were in Leicester was just how much the crowd enjoyed seeing the DJs. Our crew set up the studio itself as this big glass box and they have to almost ‘walk on’ to do their show. It’s such a buzz for them.

“And it means those coming to the festival they can see the shows going out live on air too.

“We’ve made great strides at taking Radio 2 out to our listeners. I think it’s important to meet people where they are, not just broadcast from London all the time.

“If you look at our output now we’ve got shows coming live from Cardiff, Salford and the other week we even had Vernon Kay out live on a remote Scottish island. It’s all part of the fun of broadcasting and live radio.”

Why Preston?

The decision to come to Preston for the Radio 2 festival was announced in April this year and follows the festival being hosted in Leicester previously. It’s a big departure from the residency it used to have in London’s Hyde Park.

Helen said: “I’m a Hull girl, so I understand what it means to people to have these kinds of music events come to their cities and towns.

“When I was growing up then we’d have to travel to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield to see these kinds of acts. You’d think ‘they’d never come here’.

“From talking to people in Leicester last year there was this over-riding sense of ‘wow, I can’t believe all these bands, artists and presenters are in my city’. People loved it and were so proud.

“We hope we’ll get that same welcome in Preston.”

Helen said the decision to pick Preston was in part due to logistics.

She said: “We wanted somewhere in the North West, and we do have a bit of a mission to take the festival to places which wouldn’t normally see these level of artists performing – especially all together on a festival line-up.

“There’s practical considerations too, like having a park that’s actually big enough and has the infrastructure to take a festival with this many people and acts over the course of two-days.

“And there’s also how open the council and other organisations are to having this kind of event and working with us, which I’m pleased to say Preston has been brilliant at. It makes a huge difference for us.”

The festival is expected to give a multi-million pound boost to the city in the run-up and while its on, with Ms Thomas saying the Leicester festival had around £5m uplift for the local economy.

She said: “This year there’s even more too, with the Friday night pre-party.

“Last year the DJ stage was so popular so we were like how do we build on that.

“We’ll be confirming the DJ and presenting line-up throughout the course of the next few days.”

Addressing ‘high’ ticket prices

The festival is nearly sold out, with a few tickets remaining for the Sunday – headlined by the Pet Shop Boys – and there has been some criticism of the cost of the tickets, especially for those wanting to take their whole family.

Helen said: “I appreciate budgets are tight, but to put on a festival of this quality and size then it isn’t cheap.

“I do think for the line-up we’re providing, with this quality of acts all in one place, then it does represent good value.

“And I think once people get into the festival site and see it, and hear it, and feel it, they’ll just have the best time.”

Asked who she was most looking forward to seeing, Helen said: “The Pet Shop Boys are just one of a kind aren’t they? They always put on an amazing show.

“And being a Hull girl, well it has to be Paul Heaton too doesn’t it?”

Read more: BBC Radio 2 In The Park road closures

Future of Zoe Ball and presenter challenges

Asked if Zoe Ball, currently absent from the airwaves with Scott Mills standing in as breakfast show host, would be at the festival, Helen said: “We will be making an announcement about Zoe’s return in September.

“As I said the presenter line-up for the festival will be confirmed this week.”

The radio station has been under pressure in recent years with high profile departures, such as Ken Bruce and Simon Mayo, and a drop in listeners to commercial radio stations such as Greatest Hits radio.

Ms Thomas said: “We are still the most listened to radio station in the country, we have more than 13m listeners and in the last 12-months any declines have stabilised.

“I am really proud of everyone and how we have kept hold of those 13m+ listeners.

“It’s like a family at Radio 2. We have such a great and eclectic mix of presenters now and I think in comparison to commercial radio you need to remember how much music we play.

“We’re getting through 15,000 different records, while on more commercial stations it’s much more locked down and you’re playing just 4,000 to 5,000.

“And I think if you look at our specialist shows too, we don’t just have broad, mass, appeal but there’s lots of different genres both in terms of music but also religion and special-interests too.”

Get to know Helen Thomas

What time does your alarm go off? Usually around 6.30am, I have spin class three-times-a-week so that’s the wake up.

Coffee or tea? Coffee

How do you take it? A skinny cappuccino for me

There’s one pack of crisps in a multi-pack left, which flavour do you hope it is? Ready salted.

Isn’t that a bit, well, boring? No way, it’s the best of crisps. I’m definitely more of a savoury girl than sweet.

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