Every Friday from 6.00am to 1.00 pm we have a Town centre Market in the middle of town with stalls for: Fruit & Veg, Flowers and plants, Fresh Fish, Mobile phone repair, Greek foods, Home goods and cleaning products. It is a lively event in the old tradition of market towns throughout England and we hope that many more stalls will join us each week. Perfect to pick up a healthy snack or your weekend veggies on the way to work. We look forward to enjoying the Friday Market during our Community Festival week on Sept 12th and 19th.

In addition to outside sponsors we would like to also recognise the admin team who started the Festival off and run it each year – that is myself as organiser based at my Shefford Marketing Agency  with my colleague Sue Warne and my partner Lesley Whiteman, whose company River Dream Events run the Shefford Community Market on behalf of Shefford Town Council, on the second Saturday of every month, in the High Street and Pamoli Square.

It is worth noting perhaps that the Community Festival grew out of my own  involvement on the Community Hall committee – where I run weekly Tai Chi classes.

We have been talking about sponsors recently who pay to support the community but there are others who make the festival possible by providing an invaluable service. These include local publications Shefford Newsline and LivingLife magazines who support Shefford by publishing and delivering information about the festival – without them we could not let you know what is going on.

Equally we are supported online by  Lesley Whiteman Social Media – and by Shefford Local – who also offer low cost social media advertising to help local businesses, charities and events to be found by local people.

We are delighted to welcome Bathroom Vogue once again as a Festival sponsor for 2025 – Bathroom Vogue are yet another local business supporting their community in a way that enables us to promote the festival – now in it’s eighth year! They are a family-run business who have been  helping Shefford create it’s bathrooms  since 1989.

We are delighted the team at Lemon Plaice have chosen once again to sponsor the Festival for 2025. Lemon Plaice at the top of the High Street is a landmark  traditional fish and chip shop that has been proud to be feeding the good people of Shefford for the last 20 years.

I’d like to give a shout out for our Shefford Community Hall which has recently had a great make over with installation of a new heating and air conditioning system plus a new audio visual system with hearing loop.

The hall has a long history of serving the community and has a social centred ethos which enables it to offer a unique venue for kids parties, social/exercise classes and other social group activities for the benefit of young and old people in our town. It would be a brilliant venue for events and activities during the Community Festival.

The Hall is on one level with a composite floor. The entrance has a ramp allowing for wheelchair access. The kitchen has a serving hatch. Ladies, Gents and Disabled Toilet are provided. Outside there is a small garden area with Parking space in front of the hall for approx 12 vehicles.

The hall features a great clear space of 15 Mtrs x 9 Mtrs with a capacity of up to 100 people with 19 tables and 100 chairs. It has a Drop down screen with Projector, Audio visual equipment including Hearing loops.

The kitchen, which has a 3 metre serving hatch has a large electric oven, grill and hob, a Microwave Oven also an Urn plus 2 electric kettles, a Refrigerator and Crockery – limited supply of cups -70, saucers, mugs 21, plates, side plates, teapots, glasses and cutlery.

A small enclosed rear outdoor garden area is available and there is limited parking in front of the Hall, maximum of 12 parking spaces – subject to sensible parking and at owners risk. On road parking also is available immediately in front of the hall grounds. Booking Secretary is Cllr Elsa Tattersfield – contact 01462811607 or email [email protected]

Opening Ceremony in the High Street

Scarecrow festival all around town

Garage Sale Trail all around town

Ramble walk from Lemon Plaice

Millenium Green work party

Shefford Majorettes taster evening

Well being walk from the Library

Art Exhibition at the Community Hall

Sloop Groggy Dogs sea shanty group  at the STMA

Eat Feast street food – delayed event.

We know that many more are still in preparation and are yet to be included so do keep watching this space for lots more events.

We plan to put a draft program live on here after Easter so if you have an event you would like included please notify us by completing the participant registration here https://www.sheffordcommunityfestival.co.uk/registration/ 

We are moving on with the program for this September and I am delighted to announce that we already have four of our signature events booked in:

Community Market on Saturday 13th Sept

Garage Sale Trail Sunday 14th Sept

Scarecrow Festival Fri, Sat, Sunday 12/13/14 Sept

Art Exhibition @ Community Hall Sat/Sunday 20/21 Sept

We are delighted to announce that local companies John R Ford and Country Properties will again sponsor the Shefford Community Festival for 2025. Both companies have been established in the Shefford community for many years and were among the first to lend financial support to the festival.

While for the past seven years most of the cost of running the festival has been covered voluntarily at no cost by the small team here at festival central, we have increasingly come to rely on our sponsors to help cover admin and promotional costs.  Other continuing sponsors on the promotional front are LivingLife and Newsline magazines  – we are grateful for the support of all our sponsors.

Contact me for details if you would like to sponsor the festival