The East Hampshire Veterans Festival is back at Petersfield Festival Hall on Saturday 19 September, 10am to 3pm. Free drop-in for forces families, no booking.

The East Hampshire Veterans Festival returns to Petersfield Festival Hall on Saturday 19 September, open 10am to 3pm. It is free, there is no booking, and anyone who has served or has a family member who served can walk in.

The first festival ran on a Friday in January 2025. This year’s moves to a Saturday, which should make it reachable for people who work.

What is there on the day

East Hampshire District Council, which organises it, lists the following on its event page:

  • support services covering childcare, employment, finance, housing, pensions and welfare
  • help applying for an HM Armed Forces Veteran Card, and information on discounts
  • a place to chat, with a safe space set aside for private conversations
  • refreshments and live entertainment
  • advice from national charities, local groups and NHS organisations

The council says the 2026 exhibitor list is not finalised. Organisations that want a stall are asked to email the council’s armed forces officers at communitynorth@easthants.gov.uk.

Who is behind it

The festival is run in partnership between the district council, Petersfield Town Council and the Royal British Legion. That is a change from 2025, when the council’s page for the first festival named the partners as the council, the office of Damian Hinds MP and the Royal British Legion.

The council’s 2025 page names 25 exhibitors, which is a fair guide to what tends to turn up:

  • Forces charities and welfare: Royal British Legion Admiral Nurse Service, Petersfield Royal British Legion, SSAFA, Help for Heroes, Hounds for Heroes, Veterans Welfare Group, Forces Employment Charity, Forces Pension Society, Beyond the Wire
  • Health and care: Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and its Carers and Patient Support Hub, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICB, East Hants PCN social prescribers, Petersfield Counselling Service, Dementia Friendly Petersfield
  • Practical help: Department for Work and Pensions, EHDC Housing Solutions, Connect to Support Hampshire, Victim Support, Positive Transition, Petersfield Voluntary Care Group
  • Community groups: Bordon Belles WI, Hampshire Scouts, Strange Old Things Mobile Museum

The council’s armed forces champion is Councillor Phil Shaw. East Hampshire holds the Gold Award under the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme and re-signed the Armed Forces Covenant in 2022.

What it means for you

If you served, or your partner or parent did, this is the one day in the year when most of the relevant organisations are in the same room in Petersfield. That matters most for the things people put off: a pension query, a housing problem, an unclaimed entitlement, a veteran card application.

You do not need to be in crisis to go, and you do not need to book.

Getting there

The Festival Hall is on Heath Road, GU31 4EA, a short walk from The Square.

  • Parking. The Festival Hall car park is next door, with 212 spaces. It is pay and display, and Saturday is a charging day: 8am to 6pm, £2.90 for three hours or £9.00 all day. Sundays are free there, but the festival is not on a Sunday. Our parking in Petersfield page has the full tariff and the free-on-Sunday split.
  • By train. Petersfield station is about ten minutes’ walk. See Petersfield trains to London.
  • Roadworks. Nothing on our roadworks and travel page closes a route into the town centre that day. The footpath through Swan Street car park closes for bollard replacement from 21 September, two days after the festival.

Sources