Few places, if any, put on a festival better than Cheltenham.

Think of the racing festival, the cricket festival, the literature festival, the music festival and the science festival.

So there can be few better places to try to establish a new festival than in Cheltenham, which can lay a strong claim to being the home for festivals.

Step forward the Cheltenham 7s Festival which is scheduled to take place at Newlands Park, the home of Cheltenham Rugby Club, in three-and-a-half months, and as the name and venue would suggest, rugby will feature very strongly.

But there’s far more to the Cheltenham 7s Festival, which will take place on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th July – coronavirus permitting – than just the oval ball game.

The festival has the backing of the RFU and is expected to become part of the national 7s circuit but while rugby will be the main event on the Saturday and will feature a number of high-profile teams, there will also be netball and functional fitness, which is essentially crossfit.

The emphasis is very much on having fun and it really will be a festival in the true sense of the word because there will be music, DJs and a party atmosphere on both the Friday and Saturday nights.

Fred Million, a schoolteacher in Cheltenham, and Jack Petelo, a coach at Cheltenham Rugby Club, are the driving forces behind the new-look festival and they certainly have big plans.

“It’s all inclusive,” said 34-year-old Million. “It’s all about having fun. This has been 15 months in the planning.

“It’s a sports festival in the day and a music festival on the Friday and Saturday evenings.

“There’ll be pizzas and kebabs, we want people to camp out and we’ll have an athletes’ village up there.

“We want 1,500 participants in the various sports and we want a 1,000 footfall.”

Those are ambitious numbers but Million is confident that their expectations can be matched.

“We will be launching Cheltenham’s first team sporting event and it will run from Friday through to the Sunday morning,” added Million.

“The event will be a party on the Friday night followed by a full day of sport and then back into a music festival.

“This is what Cheltenham has been waiting for – a new sports event, a new music event, a diverse event.”

To get tickets, visit www.cheltenham7sfestival.co.uk