Editing Northampton (section)

=== Leisure ===
[[File:Northampton Market Square Lights 4.jpg|thumb|The Market Square at night]]

[[Billing Aquadrome]] leisure park is on the eastern outskirts. It has a caravan site, marina, funfair, bar, riverside restaurant and converted water mill with original workings. The Northampton Leisure Trust (branded Trilogy Leisure) has four leisure centres across Northampton: Danes Camp, Lings Forum, [[Mounts Baths]] and Duston Sports Centre. King’s Park Sports, operated by Action Centres UK, has sports facilities that include tennis courts, badminton courts, a climbing wall, trampolining, archery and more. There is also a public golf course at Delapré. Radlands Plaza is a new [[skatepark]] that opened in 2012.

According to the website of the (former) Northampton Borough Council, there are a total of 170 parks and open spaces around Northampton, which altogether span around {{convert|1880|acres|0|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web |date=19 March 2009 |title=Parks and Open Spaces &#124; Northampton Borough Council |url=http://www.northampton.gov.uk/parks |access-date=29 August 2013 |publisher=Northampton.gov.uk |archive-date=26 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130926090215/http://www.northampton.gov.uk/parks |url-status=dead }}</ref> Popular parks include [[Abington Park]], which is the town's oldest, and the Racecourse, which was used for horseracing (until 1904) and as a cricket ground (between 1844 and 1885) in addition to being the original home of [[Northampton Balloon Festival]]. Other parks include Becket's Park (which is named after Thomas Becket as are nearby Becket's Well and Thomas á Becket pub), Bradlaugh Fields (named after the Northampton MP Charles Bradlaugh), Dallington Park, Delapré Park, Eastfield Park, Hunsbury Hill (which is built around an [[Iron Age]] [[hillfort]]), Kingsthorpe Park and Victoria Park.

Popular annual events include [[Northampton Carnival]], the Beer Festival, the Dragonboat Race, the Umbrella Fair, Diwali celebrations and [[St Crispin Street Fair|St Crispins Fair]]. Northampton Balloon Festival used to be a major event in Northampton, but since being scaled down, it has been poorly attended. Northampton Music Festival has been celebrated every year since 2007 in the town centre.