A woman from Marlow was caught by surprise after her water broke a week early in the middle of Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park festival.

Jamie Smith, 34, and Sophia Todd, 28, had only arrived at Higginson Park around 45 minutes before and were in front row for Ninja Kitchen’s woodfire cooking demonstration when, seemingly out of nowhere, Sophia’s water broke a week ahead of her pregnancy due date.

It was “a bit of a shock”, to say the least, as Saturday, May 18, marked both the beginning of the delivery of the couple’s firstborn child and their first visit to Pub in the Park after moving to Pound Lane in February.

The Ninja staff immediately leapt into action, with Sophia ushered into a backstage area while Jamie ran to find a steward who contacted the festival’s medical and security teams.

A kind of “ten-person ensemble” formed around the expecting 28-year-old, according to Jamie, and in the blur of the quick-moving sequence of events, security workers “broke down” a fence so they could get back home and to the hospital.

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“You sort of go into autopilot – neither of us knew what to expect, and you just don’t plan for that sort of thing. You don’t know how you’re going to feel when it happens – it was a lot.”

Sophia gave birth to a baby girl, Ruby Rose, on Monday, May 20, and the couple were told they had to return to the hospital yesterday, May 23, after she was diagnosed with jaundice.

Despite the uncertainties and still-fresh whirlwind of the past few days, Jamie said it had been a “memorable Pub in the Park experience for sure”.

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He added that the Ninja team had offered them a free grill in exchange for naming their baby after the company on Saturday to lighten the mood.

“I don’t know how serious they were… but obviously we didn’t. We already had the names Ruby and Rose picked out.

“Sophia was more annoyed than I was when it happened because we hadn’t been there long, and I stopped her from getting a crumble because I thought we should have some proper food first. We didn’t end up getting to have any of it!”

Though a site manager who was part of the tenfold ensemble had offered the couple tickets for Sunday, the impending birth of their firstborn unsurprisingly took priority over making a return appearance at the festival.

It was quite an entrance for little Ruby, regardless. Although they may not have had time to return this year, Jamie said he was looking forward to making Pub in the Park 2025 a family affair – maybe even a first birthday celebration!