This year the Community Festival features several signature events from an EAT Feast Street Food Fair in the centre of town to the Garage Sale Trail – a Pop Up Circus to the Prince and Princess Day – the Art Exhibition to Theatre classes, singing workshops and Artisans in the Yard Gallery display, the annual Bowls Club Finals open to spectators, and the Community Hall Open Day – both with refreshments available.

As last year, St Michael’s Church will be active during the week with many events. The Women’s Institute will be participating in festival life as they do all year in the life of our town – at the Community Hall Open Day and at the Library “What’s On” day. New this year, Acorn Pre-School & Mighty Oaks will have an open stay-and-play session for children of Shefford and their parents.

Barnwell Music, who last year held a recital at the Baptist Church, will this time be running singing workshops – while at St Michael’s Church they are running a Michaelmas Fair Café including stalls with craft and produce,

So, there will be lots of special events, but there are also many regular activities such as Yoga and Tai Chi classes, Thai Kick Boxing, Scout Group, Line Dancing, Full Bottle Fitness, Karate, Dance, Hartbeeps, Coffee Club and more.

Now is a great time to check out the Festival Programme on our website and start to plan your diary for September!

Hi – those of you who have seen the latest issue of Newsline will know that we are moving ahead with coverage for the Community Hall and for the Festival Garage Sale Trail – incidentally the Langford Garage Sale Trail over the weekend went extremely well with 60 stalls I believe.

So we are now running up to the first of our deadlines for the Shefford Community Festival, which is to get the program together to submit for the August issue of Shefford Newsline – to do this I must have details of entries by mid-June – if you have not already done so.

Beyond that we will miss the great opportunity of putting your event into every home in Shefford.

I am aware that a number of exciting events are in the planning stage, so if you would like to organise an event and have not yet let me know or would like to add further information then I will need the following:

Date

Time – start/finish

Venue

Short description

Contact information you wish to publicise

Any charges

If you can’t get information to me by then we can still include you in all the other publicity with local press and social media but Newsline is really the big one.

Now we have our own website the program can be updated right up to the last week but it does work best to promote early and keep the ball rolling.

When you have your event planned then do not forget to promote it yourself as well – especially on social media and word of mouth to add to the buzz – and then nearer the time perhaps with posters. Festival logos can be downloaded from the website here https://www.sheffordcommunityfestival.co.uk/festival-downloads/ where you can also see updates on the blog section and register for your own update in the pop up.

Read the latest Shefford Community Festival Newsletter. If you would like to subscribe to these newsletters, please contact us with your name and email address and we will add you to the list.

Read Ian’s review piece on the first Community Festival – a very handsome 3 pages in Shefford Newsline – with many thanks to editor Tony Dawson, Francesca and the team at the council.

The article includes many pictures and descriptions – contact info for many participants can be found at in the Participant Directory.

I think we achieved an excellent start for the first ever Community Festival with a good number of participants having successful events.

So for next year we would like to invite more participants to join the program – all local organisations and businesses are welcome – how about it schools, pubs, clubs, businesses? I know that a number of potentially significant events missed out this year as they could not get organised in time so good luck with your planning for 2019 and if we can help at all please let me know.

Coverage in 2018 included:

• Shefford Newsline
• Hitchin Comet
• Three Counties Radio
• Social media
• Posters around town
• Program hosting on Shefford and Local Villages
• Banner in high street
• Garage Sale Trail signage

For 2019 we are now building our own website at www.sheffordcommunityfestival.co.uk and will add material as it comes available.

Publicity deadlines
Once again we have support from the Council and Shefford Newsline which means we are working toward their copy deadline at the beginning of July to have our program in the August issue. So please start thinking and planning for next year and let me know about your event as soon as possible.

Best regards
Ian Deavin

Following the success of the inaugural 2018 Shefford Community Festival, we are currently building a brand new website. Please check back to see the website take shape and find out how you can participate in the 2019 Shefford Community Festival which will take place between the 21st and 29th September.