The opening night of a brilliant community festival has been praised as a huge success.

The popular North Herts Rugby and Netball festival returned to widespread acclaim on Friday evening.

The annual event - which is now bigger and better than ever - make a triumphant appearance back at Hitchin Rugby Club.

Day two of the exciting sporting community event in North Herts is now upon us and Hitchin Nub News will be there to report on it with the return of our popular live videos.

We spoke to tireless organiser Adam Howard on the first night in a video you can watch here

Adam told us: "This is the best marriage of the North Herts sporting community and the Hitchin community. You get all the lovely people who enjoy Hitchin Street Food Monthly coming down, you get so many men's and women's rugby teams from across Hertfordshire and further afield coming down.

"It's a really nice vibe, everyone who comes just wants to have a bit of fun and enjoy the atmosphere, play a bit of sport, sample top quality from quality local outlets as well as great live music from brilliant local acts.

"We've got Hitchin Street Food Monthly, we've had Lawrence Hill playing live, we've got bars, we've got cocktails,

"We're expecting around 400 people today [Saturday, August 13] to come down and play rugby and netball, followed by more fantastic music and food - and it's all free."

After plenty of hard work over the past 12 months by the organisers, including Adam, Friday saw hundreds of people attend the event to savour the mouth-watering food on offer as well as live music.

The eagerly-awaited event continues today and will bring the best of the rugby and netball world together with our North Herts community to celebrate sport, music and good food. 

Renowned local music will be showcased with Troi Parker Roth, SK & and The Kings and Cardinal Kings will all be playing along with succulent food options available from the acclaimed Cantinas Carnitas and Amani Kitchen - along with the brilliant Sam's Pizza and many other renowned local independents.

Susie Bewell, renowned branch principal of key sponsor Raymond James, one of many local companies backing the event, told Nub News: "We are big supporters of this event as it brings our community together.

"We enjoyed attending the festival on Friday and it's been great to see it was such a huge success. We're looking forward to more of the same on Saturday.

"We're also looking forward to watching all the women's rugby teams taking part in one of the cup, plate, and development cup competitions sponsored by Raymond James Hitchin."

Games kick-off at 1040am for the women with the finals from 230pm.

See Hitchin Nub News for more on this brilliant event. We also have a number of outstanding locals journalism and photography interns reporting on the festival so please do keep an eye out for their work over the coming days.