Shefford Community Festival opened on Friday 22^nd with a confetti-fueled bang – thoughtfully provided by our Mayor Ken Pollard who officiated the ribbon cutting itself ably supported by our Shefford Prince and Princesses, plus a celebrity Pepper pig and a good number of spectators who assembled in the High Street.  The ceremony took place outside Shefford Tandoori restaurant and Rose’s café and coffee shop.

Fortunately, the weather was kind to us as after the ceremony many of the group went across the road to sample the excellent EatFeast street food and to chat about the forthcoming festival events. It was noticeable that we were joined by one of the candidates for the local by-election (complete with a film crew) who was talking to people enjoying a selection of food from different genres. It is great that local politicians are now actively reaching out to the people of Shefford and we are delighted that the festival was able to offer an opportunity for this interaction – a great example of community communication in action.

A Service of Thanksgiving at Harvest Time

Celebrating our Gifts, especially

the Poetry of Robert Bloomfield, the Rural Poet

You are invited to attend a Service of Thanksgiving to celebrate our Harvest Festival
and to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the death of Robert Bloomfield, the Rural Poet
who was a resident of Shefford from 1812 until his death in 1823.

The service will be held at 3pm on Sunday 1^st October 2023
at St Michael and All Angels Church, High Street, Shefford, SG17 5DD.

We hope you will join us for refreshments after the service.

Shefford Town Council

10.00 -1.00pm Family Fun at Shefford Children’s Centre, School Lane, Shefford. We are delighted that Shefford Children’s Centre will be running this free community event for the whole family, Find out about your local children’s centre. Join in the fun with Inflatables, Crafts, Animal handling,  baby area, refreshments and more. Contact organiser Kirsty Maxwell on 0300 300 8112 or at [email protected].

We have been inviting many people to our opening ceremony – including the local press who have responded by spreading the word.

You can see here the response from Biggleswade Today

You may have noticed that we have a new Opening Ceremony on the program this year and would like to invite you to attend. The opening will take place in the High Street and our mayor – Ken Pollard has kindly agreed to do the ribbon cutting, accompanied by the Shefford Prince and Princess.

Sponsors and members of the local press will be invited to attend and the EatFeast street food people are also expected on the High Street, so it should be a fun community event – I do hope you will be able to come.

We plan to start the ceremony at 5.00 pm on Friday 22 September and look forward to seeing you there 😊

I always think it is great when local companies add their support to the community in general – so I was pleased to see that the people at Lemon Plaice are proud of their involvement. Lemon Plaice is a landmark in Shefford – practically a social gathering place!

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.