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]
