The popular UK’s Strongest Man competition is not returning to St Albans this year, it has been revealed.
The three-day event, which was held at the Abbey View Athletics Track in Verulamium Park in July and subsequently shown on Channel 5, saw the 16 strongest men in the country battle it out for the title.
More than 10,000 fans watched as strongmen from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland took on a number of challenges, including the truck pull, the car flip, the log lift and the stones of strength.
Paul Benton became the first ever Scot to win the title after he triumphed in two of the five challenges.
The fun family day out, which was full of free children's activities, live music, and food as well as feats of superhuman strength, was expected to return to St Albans for a third year this summer.
Organiser David McConachie, who lives in St Albans, explained why it wasn't coming back to the city, and instead relocating to Milton Keynes.
"We decided to move to the Stadium MK football stadium as we had a lot of success at other grounds. The main reason was the economies of scale that come with going into a ready-built stadium.
"We haven't ruled out coming back as we love staging the event in St Albans, and only have positive things to say about our experience - the amazing fans (many St Albans people have already booked to come to the MK show), the council were incredibly supportive, and the staff at Abbey View were all so professional and helpful. I know they are disappointed we aren't returning there next year.
"We've had a lot of requests from around the country for us to move more centrally - over 75 per cent of the fans travel between one and two hours to attend - so testing a new market also seemed like a good idea.
"Ticket sales are already well up on this year's event, and may well beat the 2018 attendance in St Albans, so Milton Keynes looks like it will be a great success.
"Obviously for me as a St Albans resident, it's a bittersweet pill. I really enjoyed bringing such a great event to my home city."
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