Bedford Park Festival 2010

Preparations underway for Chiswick's popular arts and community event

Bedford Park Festival - Dates For Your Diary

June 12th to 27th 2010

Summer Exhibition Preview Party - Friday June 11th. Exhibition runs till June 18th.

Green Days and Craft Fair weekend: June 12th and 13th.

Festival Mass, Bedford Park Walk and Bedford Park Open Gardens: Sunday June 27th.
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The Bedford Park Festival was launched in June 1967 by the then vicar of St Michael & All Angels, with the enthusiastic support of the Bedford Park Society and its patron John Betjeman.

Its purpose was to rekindle a sense of community, celebrate the arts and raise money for urgent repairs to the church. But it also helped preserve the area from demolition, laying the foundations for Bedford Park’s current prosperity.

The Festival has taken place every June since then - still organised by St Michael & All Angels - and is now the largest community event in Chiswick, attracting thousands of people on Green Days weekend. It is the centrepiece of St Michaels’ work in the community and raises money for charities as well as the upkeep and outreach of the church.

It helped raise £500,000 for the rebuilding of the Parish Hall in 2000, and to pay for the recent repair and refurbishment of the church.

It has supported local charities, such as St Mary’s Convent & Nursing Home, the Upper Room, the Microloan Foundation, and Musequality, as well as Unicef, Brain Tumour Research and the Study of Infant Deaths.

What’s happening this year?

There’ll be the usual mix of one-off concerts, dramas and talks and all the favourites - the Bedford Park Summer Exhibition, poetry evening, Bedford Park Open Gardens, Bedford Park Walk, photographic exhibition, Festival Mass and Lunch, and Rosalind Leney’s studio concerts. The programme will be published in May.

Our two-day Green Days fete, opposite St Michaels, will have stalls, fairground attractions, live music, craft fair, children's fancy dress competition and talent contest, with plenty of food and drink at the beer and refreshments tents and the barbecue. You can see more at www.bedfordparkfestival.org

This year St Michael & All Angels is devoting all its charitable activity to three charities: The Upper Room, the Lamb Foundation in Bangladesh, and USPG - Anglicans in World Mission. The Festival will be raising money for these charities and for the work of St Michael & All Angels, more details of which will be made known nearer the time.

Would you like to help?

There are many opportunities to help on Green Days and during the rest of the Festival - for a couple of hours or a couple of weeks! Some activities won't begin until a few days before the Festival. But you can get involved from now on.

1. Perform, create and take part:

  • Singers wanted for the Festival Mass (rehearsals on Tuesdays 9-10pm, starting late April) All welcome. Contact: Jonathan Dods: jondods@yahoo.com.
  • Plus photographers for the Photographic Exhibition. Watch for details nearer the time
  • Children to take part in the ‘Bedford Park’s Got Talent’ contest, the children's fancy dress parade, and the junior 5-a-side football. For details of how to enter, watch the notice boards, emails or St Michaels’ website where there are photos and lots of details about the Festival: www.bedfordparkfestival.org
  • Gardens wanted for the Bedford Park Open Gardens on Sunday 27th. Contact: Carol Douglas at caroldouglas111@aol.com.

2. Help run events and stalls:

  • Green Days: help with the Craft Fair, music performances, refreshments, the beer tent, the barbecue, book stall, international food, plants, children's corner, 5-a-side football, skittles, champagne lottery, recycling and the heavy gang, who put it all up and take it down again.
  • Concerts and events: backstage and technical teams, to help with to help with production, sound and lighting, moving pews and chairs, assembling the stage. Contact Michael Robinson: roddis@dircon.co.uk
  • Catering: cooking, preparing canapes, serving drinks/teas. Jane Trigle: jane.lenton@virgin.net
  • Front of house: selling tickets, ushering, bar staff. Jane Thomson: jthomson@waitrose.com
  • Publicity: writing releases, preparing and designing leaflets and posters, putting up posters and banners, contacting the media, updating the website. Torin Douglas: torindouglas@aol.com
  • Admin tasks: various roles, some needing computer skills. helen@may.be

3. Gifts and goods wanted:

  • Children's Clothes Stall: Clothes, fancy dress outfits and excellent-condition shoes wanted, for children from birth to 14-ish. Please arrange with the Parish Office (8994 1380) to leave them in the vestry on a Tuesday, for collection. Contact Vicky Brooke: fbl.property@tesco.net
  • High Roller Tombola: new items for prizes, including unwanted new gifts: Bottles of wine and spirits; Bottles of olive oil and packaged, non-perishable foodstuff; Smart toiletries - soaps, perfume, candles; Wallets, purses, photo frames, scarves; New toys, books, CDs and DVD's; Tickets for theatres, concerts and sports events; Weekends at hotels or sport clubs. Contact Sally Haigh: sallyahaigh@yahoo.co.uk
  • Win a Meal: Now - help wanted to sign up restaurants to donate a free meal for two. On Green Days - help on the stall in two-hour slots. Contact Monica Ricketts: monica.ricketts1@btinternet.com.
  • Books: Soon, second-hand books please. Helen Wareham: warehamw4@hotmail.com
  • Bric-a-Brac: : From April 11th: Contact: Julie Duckworth: julieslyong@hotmail.com or Sue Ouseley: ouseleyd@aol.com

4. Plant, bake and make marmalade:

  • Cake stall. Nearer the day, please bake cakes and donate jars of marmalade. And if you have access to freezer space where we can store cakes in the weeks beforehand, let us know. Contact Rachel Joseph via parishoffice@smaaa.org.uk.
  • International Food stall. Food items will be wanted. Contact Katy Timmons for details: katy_timmons@hotmail.com.
  • Plant stall. Please start growing plants to sell on the stall: Contact Carol Douglas: caroldouglas111@aol.com.
  • Enter the Marmalade-making competition, sponsored by Marmalade Jewellery, in Turnham Green Terrace. Pick up an entry form from the shop or St Michael & All Angels church. Entries must be submitted between May 22nd and June 5th. Details on form. (If you have spare jars, you could also donate them to the Green Days cake stall and to the Macmillan Plant Fair in Chiswick on May 13th. www.macmillanplantfair.org.uk )

5. Sponsorship and donations:

We get great support from local business - more than 130 firms helped us last year.
If you have contacts, or would like to help us liaise with businesses, please contact torindouglas@aol.com.

March 22, 2010