Shefford Community Festival – a new committee – your opportunity to “Make Shefford Great Again!” – no seriously, lets make it an even better place to live………

I am retiring from work and hopefully moving on a little, so think this is an appropriate time to restructure the Shefford Community Festival which I have run for the last eight years, and would therefore like to invite anybody interested to a meeting at 7.00pm in Morrisons Community Room on Monday 2^nd Feb.

Anybody with experience of organising in Shefford will of course be welcome, we need your knowledge and connections, but in particular I would like to encourage people new to Shefford to get in on the next phase of this established event. The main aim of the Festival is to make Shefford a better place to live and there are signs that this is working – so if you care for the community and have the enthusiasm to help I look forward to seeing you there.

Happy New Year

Ian Deavin

Sorry to Nicola King our excellent present Mayor- I wanted to show our previous Prince and Princess – appointments, which for simple lack of support, have gone the way of the pram races, Revs and Rhythms and the gala parade, Will the Community Festival be the next? Maybe we need a properly funded Community Group to support this sort of function – Shefford is growing quickly so there must be rates money in the pot?

Re 2026 – I have had some conversations following my previous posts – sadly nothing yet which suggests that the Festival can be saved for 2026.

For me the question has always been – does Shefford want a Festival? – judging from its success over the past eight years then the answer is yes, but looking at the recent response to the idea of saving it, then probably not.

We have a valuable and successful community event that has been given to the community for free, so now there are so many possibilities: a committee, a Community Interest Company, sell it to an interested business, someone make up the financial cost of admin, an admin partner or something other. Or will it die for lack of positivity?

As I have suggested above I wanted to show our previous Prince and Princess – appointments, which for simple lack of support, have gone the way of the pram races, Revs and Rhythms and the gala parade, Will the Community Festival be the next? Maybe we need a properly funded Community Group to support this sort of function and create a space for new residents to make their contribution – Shefford is growing quickly so there must be many new families looking to take part in the local community – plus the additional rates money, development levies etc. in the pot – I would love to hear we can open up our community organisations and budgets to enable these people to participate in events like these.

Re the Festival, at the moment I am thinking – I have given it a fair effort for 8 years so perhaps just walk away.

Organising the Festival itself is not a great amount of work but I can’t do it on my own so if anyone can think of a viable alternative or thinks they might like to get involved then please contact me to discuss.

Ian Deavin

Mobile 07860 218334 or email [email protected]

Can we keep the Festival going?

To explain,I started the festival because a gap was identified at a Community Hall committee meeting and I was asked to “see what you can do”. Since then the festival has been supported for the past eight years on a pro bono basis, by my marketing business, including my colleague Sue Warne and my partner Lesley Whiteman who have worked hard on the website, social media and creative/admin to deal with databases, newsletters, posters and banners etc.

In that time the Festival has resulted in a number of spinoffs and boosted other activities. Plus of course we have had the continuing support of Shefford Newsline and LivingLife magazines – without these people and publications the Festival would not have been possible – may I take this opportunity to say thank you. In recent years we have also been supported by community minded sponsors, but this has gone only a small way to covering the cost of running the festival – thank you also.

Unfortunately I now have to close my marketing business, which means I no longer have to hand either the money or the people needed to continue the Festival, and raises the question of how to move the Festival forward, indeed whether to do so at all?

There is clearly a resource gap of people and/or money which I don’t have, but may be available elsewhere in Shefford?

To put this in context I have also had a number of conversations recently with people who have suggested a wider “town association” arrangement of all the town stakeholders as a proactive forum for community events generally in support of the council, and maybe this might find a connection with the community festival?

For information I would normally start planning the festival for next year in January so I would welcome any ideas. Please contact me here [email protected] or on 07860 218334

We have usually managed to arrange for the guys at EatFeast to visit Shefford in coincidence with the week of the Festival – unfortunately, that was not possible this year but it did mean that we had yummy street food to look forward to as a delayed event.

Along with quite a few others we walked into town to sample what was on offer and had a very enjoyable evening as the weather held up for us, just “chilling” in the town.  Our little town centre is getting busier these days, with street food, the Friday market and the Community Market (expanding the High Street into Pamoli Square)  – it will soon be used for the Charter Fair and the Christmas Lights. As we saw recently on film at the Community Hall history presentation, the town centre used to be used for Pram Races and a market that stretched across the pavements the full length of the High Street on both sides of the street. Interestingly, it looked like they didn’t even close the road to traffic!

I recently received photos from Sunday’s community lunch at the Baptist Church with the following note from Erica Bowler “Unfortunately, we were having far too much fun with the activities at Messy Church and completely forgot to get any photos from that! But it was wonderful chaotic and thought-provoking fun, with 43 people present.”

After such a packed 10 days there are so many events that deserve an honourable mention but so little space – so here are my personal highlights:

Certainly the first highlight must be the opening ceremony on Friday when we had a major break in the weather just in time for the  ceremony which was attended by Nicola King our present mayor, with our previous mayor Ken Pollard and our MP Alistair Strathern, together with Shefford’s own “Belle” – Emily Price from “Be our Guest” who jointly orchestrated themselves to cut our ribbon.

Saturday saw a wealth of highlights – Scarecrows, Community Market and a Flower Festival to feast your eyes on. My personal favourite was “Shefford in the Past” a rolling drop in film show with material on the pram races, the floods, and the raft races, also an extensive town centre market.  Street demonstrations featured, and did I mention the floods?

Sunday – Garage Sale Trail – a mega fave obviously, and not just because my partner Lesley runs it or that we had a garage sale village parked on our front verge, but because there were so many excellent and busy stalls. More excellent  were the Scarecrows and the Stag Walkers group who met in the Town Meadow car park and headed out for Stamford and Summerhill by way of the Navigation river section,

Monday – the Shared Space at the Baptist Church Hall was well attended with people sharing community in an attentive space. My own Tai Chi class at the Community Hall is always a highlight of my week.

Tuesday – more Rambling, and Art Society group and two sets of young athletes – the Black Ice Academy Cheer and the Shefford Majorettes who  welcomed 5 new girls to try out baton and ribbon twirling and Pom Pom skills. Meanwhile The Greenspace Conservation Group were hard at work in Bellcote Meadow. Later the WI and Nicola Burr filled the Community Hall with a well attended talk on Bess of Hardwick and Plastic Free Shefford.

On Wednesday I visited the NEED Project at the Methodist Church Hall with free food on offer during the day and communal singing in the evening.

Thursday – more walking , this time from the Library – Shefford is certainly a town that walks and paints! In the evening I met the Shefford and District Amateur Radio Club (SADAR) at the Community Hall – which has been newly refurbished with full audio visual facilities.

Friday – BEST House was host to a guided practice session with Mindfulness coach Will George, while at the STMA Self Help artists were happily working away on their drawing and painting with Carole Wilkinson.  Our weekly Friday Farmers Market goes from strength to strength and create a welcome feature in the town centre.

Saturday started for me with another personal favourite – the Art Exhibition in the Community Hall where lots of excellent works were on display, while across the road  Neville Funerals team  were Talking (about) Elephants in their bereavement support group. Then in the evening the town was entertained by Sloop Groggy Dogs Sea Shanty group – another success!

Sunday – the last day of our Community Festival included a visit to the Bowls club where they had their annual finals of both men’s and ladies competitions. 

It was a brilliant week with so many events that everyone must surely have found something to do and delight them. My thanks to all the event organisers for once again making our festival a success!

Just in some photos of the Sloop Groggy Dogs Sea Shanty group performance which I believe was a great success at the STMA  and of the organisers – recognise anyone?

The last day of our Community Festival included a visit to the Bowls club where they had their annual finals of both mens and ladies competitions – open to spectators.

Nearby at the STMA there was a football match in progress and I moved on for a look in to the Baptist Messy Harvest service and Community lunch.

Saturday started for me at the Art Exhibition in the Community Hall where lots of excellent works were on display – I have bought there before but this year I was totally spoilt for choice. Cakes and coffee were good also!

Across the road at the Methodist meeting room I met the Neville Funerals team who were Talking (about) Elephants in their bereavement support group, often numbering around 15 people – what a lovely thing to do for our community.

Elsewhere The Baptist church was hosting their exploration of Nature, while Shefford Lower School saw Black Ice Academy Cheer doing tumbling, stunting and dance – sadly I was unable to visit – but I did get along to the STMA in the evening while they were preparing for Sloop Groggy Dogs Sea Shanty group.