We are looking forward to the Festival running from Friday 22 September to Sunday 1st October – also now is a time when many of us are planning our summer holidays so it is an ideal opportunity to think about being involved in the Shefford Community Festival – how to match our own interests with others in the town?

There are four ways:

• plan and run your own activity or event – it could be a charity coffee morning or something larger. Businesses could run an invitational promotion.
• Send us details and updates which we can promote
• Join other community minded businesses who have decided to sponsor the Festival with financial or service support.
• Visit and take part in the many events available in September!

We already have confirmation of the Garage Sale Trail,  the Scarecrow Festival and the Art Exhibition – please email me if I can help you plan your involvement –  [email protected]

We were delighted to be part of the St Michaels Christmas Tree Festival again this year – with a tree from Three Kings Christmas trees and support from all our sponsors, we showed Community Festival activities in the special baubles. This annual event was a lovely demonstration of the community spirit in Shefford with exhibits from many of the voluntary organisations in our town.

As organiser of the Shefford Community Festival, one of the things I am most proud of is the way we have provided a stimulus and a platform for other people to organise things that benefit the whole community. This year featured an innovation in the form of a new craft fair. It was held at the STMA and we have heard many good things about this event.

It was set up by Lesley Whiteman who also runs the annual Garage Sale Trail and has experience promoting large Mind Body Spirit Festivals, and many other local events. Explained Lesley “the craft fair went really well so we are now planning a Christmas fair to promote our local crafters and enable Shefford people to buy their Christmas presents locally, direct from the creator!”

When our readers see this issue the Christmas Craft fair will be over, but at the time of writing it’s advancing well, nearly fully booked with stallholders, and looks set to be even more successful than the September fair – which had 21 stalls offering jewellery, handmade soaps, aroma milk baths, ceramics, pottery, candles, reed diffusers, hand-made bags, healing crystal lamps, marinades & sauces, artwork/paintings, decoupage and more. The STMA team headed by Sam are being really helpful and visitors seem to appreciate the adjacent bar.

One stallholder commented “it was a well-supported fair with a good number of visitors” whilst several visitors and stallholders asked about future fairs – so we asked Lesley for more information and she told us that there are more craft fairs planned, as well as pre-loved sales to address the needs of families in this difficult economic climate.

If you’re interested in exhibiting at, or visiting future events, Lesley can add you to her email list if you contact her at [email protected]

Ian Deavin – Community Festival organiser

This was “only” our fourth Community Festival ( we missed 2020 because of Covid ) but it really does feel established as a feature of the local calendar – as one activity organiser put it – “it has got its own traction” – which is exactly what I was hoping for when I started organising the festival in 2017. At that point I gave it three years on the basis that if Shefford wanted a festival then Shefford people would get behind it.

Well of course it didn’t work out quite like that but despite Covid, people have “got behind it” to create something that now thrives and is supported by our local businesses. So a special thank you to all you organisers, sponsors and other supporters out there who made this year’s festival so worthwhile. On the other hand of course the nation was in mourning for the Queen – we took the view that the Festival was our way of supporting the community, but the extra bank holiday with its full media coverage was clearly a factor.

What then were the stand-outs? Well of course a lot of people put a lot of effort into all the events spread over what is now a 10 day period and I was not able to go to all of them but here’s a few. First – I don’t have pics of the Musical Theatre and didn’t get to the sessions but well done to Hollie Milburn with your Musical Theatre Fun again this year – I hope you had some good sessions and the kids had fun.

Otherwise, the Garage Sale trail was busy with a record number of stalls – and lots of groups walking round town with maps also seeking out the many interesting Scarecrows that were on view. We would like to thank Rose’s at Duck Lane and the guys at LivingLife for their help in providing cakes and vouchers for the inaugural “Shefford 100 – great Cupcake Giveaway” which had some really positive reviews – the kids loved them!

Street Calisthenics had a good launch and hopefully will continue to contribute to the activities of local youth. More in my line was the inclusive café held most days at St Michaels Church – which I managed to get to a couple of times – I also noticed how popular the STMA has become and how successful their Family Fun Day is as a great event. While I ran my Tai Chi sessions on the Digswell field it was noticeable just how popular the field is for football and dog walking – all very sociable and lovely to see our green spaces being well used. Tony Dawson offered a retrospective view on the Shefford support for refugees held at St Michaels and sponsored by the Rotary Club.

The week finished for me with our annual family visit to the Art Exhibition where we enjoy the talents of our local artists along with tea and cake – followed by an evening of Tai Chi in the Community Hall.

Thank you to all who organised activities and supported this year’s festival in whatever way – and all the best to everybody in your planning for next year – and a final thank you to our sponsors who have helped to keep our efforts afloat and enabled us to spend money publicising the programme.

With all best wishes for the next 12 months

Ian Deavin

Organiser

 

I attended as many events as possible over our designated ten days of festival and had some very positive experiences – however there were many other events and we would really like to hear about how they went. So if you organised an event or attended one please drop us a note about your experience which will help us to move the whole thing forward for next year.

You can email me at: [email protected]

 

It is always sad when we run down the festival but we had a brilliant programme and record numbers on things like the Garage Sale Trail and the STMA Family Fun Day – also a great success with the new Craft Fair – will we see a Christmas Craft Fair as many people requested?

So looking at the Sunday events I am drawn to the Greenline Medical Demonstrations and the Bowls club finals. Personally, I will make a point of visiting the Art Exhibition and then teaching the Tai Chi class in the evening for a gentle end to the week.

Last night I attended the talk by Tony Dawson – sponsored by the Ivel Rotary Club – on the theme of Shefford’s welcome to refugees from 1939 to the present day. We first had a welcome from Our Mayor Ken Pollard who explained that the evening was to celebrate Shefford’s support for the kinderstransport from continental Europe in 1939 and to welcome present day refugees from Afghanistan. This was followed by an illustrated talk by Tony Dawson of the Shefford History Group which led us through the arrival and welcome experience from the perspective of refugees and hosts.

Saturday at the Community Festival sees Greenline Medical Services doing demonstrations at their forecourt on Clifton Road – look out for the ambulances! I will also be in action myself from 9.30 to give a free Tai Chi class on Digswell Field adjacent to the STMA – meanwhile the Bowls club will be holding their yearly finals and the four churches in town will run their Church Trail for people to discover their differences and similarities.

My particular favorite event is the Shefford Art Exhibition at the Community Hall which we attend every year and where we have in the  past purchased occasional pictures – so thank you to our local artists for the opportunity to see your work.