Ickenham Festival

Festival Team Information

The Festival Team is comprised of local people in Ickenham who meet to discuss and plan the Festival.  You are very welcome to visit a team meeting to see what goes on.  Please contact us via "Contact Button" above.  As of November 2022 the Festival Team is:

Biennial statement from our Chairman, David Edington, November 2024

Welcome to our 2024 AGM, where we, The Ickenham Festival Team report back to our community the events of the previous two year Festival cycle since the last AGM.

Since Festival 2020 being cancelled due to Covid, The Festival Team, just like many other groups, has struggled to get back into the rhythm of staging fun and fundraising events during the subsequent years.  Whilst the biannual Festival Week is set into our diaries very much in advance along with the Ickenham Festive Community Nights, the days of Jumble Sales, Race Nights, Kid’s Discos and Burns Nights are at present a distant memory. The demand to support events can be seen when Nikki and Doug announce their popular Quiz Nights, the demand leads to Sell Out signs being posted well before the event but people coming forward from the community to help run events, at the moment, seems lacking. If anyone has an idea for a fundraising event, and wants the help of The Festival Team to bring it to fruition, please speak to one of The Team.

Anyway; The yearly cycle of Remembrance Flags going up, then being exchanged for Christmas Lights which leads to our Festive Night when Ickenham comes out onto the streets and starts the real countdown to Christmas continues to be popular. Our thanks to Steve, Jim and Adam for servicing the shopfront Christmas lights, and Jane who liaises with LBH and our contractors to hopefully fund the lighting up of London’s largest Christmas tree, here in Ickenham, along with the lamp column illuminations.

So; looking back to June 24 and Festival Week my memory is of lots of individuals and groups hosting events that were very well supported by the community. The programme was full of interesting events and there were clashes on some days where we couldn’t get to all the events we would have liked to. Reports from those taking part confirm that the aim of raising awareness and funds was successful, with reports of new members joining clubs and many thousands of pounds raised for themselves or charities that they in turn support.

Having once again made the decision to deliver a free programme to every house in Ickenham, being paid for by its advertisement content, excellently sold by Doug and Martin, we invited groups and organisations to submit their events for inclusion. The very talented Ella Summerfield created the fabulous programme and listed many beautiful open gardens, informative walks setting off from the pump, St Giles having their Flower Festival, along with guided tours and evening talks too. Local History seemed to attract a significant number of events this year, but each proved very different, with each organiser taking a very different slant on the subject.  Numerous other events were also listed in The Festival Programme during the week. To everybody who helped arrange one of these, The Team and I thank you for getting involved.  

With the owners of Swakeleys House still not fulfilling their obligation to allow Gala Day to be held within the grounds we were glad of our experience in staging successful Festival Days in the village centre. We once again set about planning it there with applications to LBH to close Almond Avenue and Milton Court to house our usual stalls and attractions, encourage the shopkeepers, library, Village Hall etc. to also get involved and to stage a true whole of Village Day. We were pleased with the result.  Thank you to Jake for taking on the task of dealing with LBH and in getting the permissions needed.

 I thank The Festival Team that staged Ickenham Festival 2024, the groups, organisations and individuals that hosted events, everyone that participated making it such a great success in so many ways. I also thank LBH and the residents of Milton Court who once again welcomed the staging of Village Day outside their houses and to Glebe School and its neighbours that welcomed/tolerated our four hours of Glastonbury on their doorstep.

Looking ahead, Dennis, our treasurer, assures us that we are in a good financial position for now, but for The Ickenham Festival to have a long term future with the same ethos, new ways of raising funds will need to be found. We welcome new people to come forward to think up, plan and run new events alongside the Festival ethos of having fun, raising awareness, promoting groups and raising those funds thus keeping Ickenham the Best Village in which to live.                         

Thank you, David Edington