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:
David Edington - Chairman | Doug Neilson - Vice Chair | Nickki Summerfield - Secretary |
Dennis Lewis - Treasurer | Dave Kershaw | Emma Hawkesworth |
Jane Whybrow | Ron May | Jake Shurey |
Richard Tosdevin | Martin Locke |
Here we are again, but this time after a four year lapse.
Another Festival Week under our belts. More lessons learnt, especially that some things are more powerful than Ickenham Festival and that a pandemic can blow us off course. Looking back to June 22 and Festival Week my memory is of lots of individuals and groups hosting events that were very well supported by the community. Whilst the number of events and open gardens were down on previous years (understandable post pandemic), the programme still seemed full 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.
We had some great fun running our cycle of events with Quiz Nights, Race Nights, Jumble Sales,Burns' Nights etc. up to Spring 2020. All these were well supported and raised funds to help us subsidise Festival Week. Covid put a stop to these and looking ahead post-Covid we have to decide how much time and effort we put into such events.
Having once again made the decision to deliver a free larger programme to every house in Ickenham being paid for by a slight increase in advertisement content, 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 of from the pump, St Giles having their Flower Festival, along with guided tours and lunchtime music too. Numerous other events were 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 Village Day 2018 had proved so successful in the village centre. We set about planning it there again this year with the plan 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.
I thank The Festival Team that staged Ickenham Festival 2022, the groups, organisations and individuals that hosted events, everyone that participated making it such a great success in so many ways. I also thank Hillingdon Borough 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. Whilst valuable people come and go we still have a strong team. I’ve been told to agree to delegate more and plan further ahead. 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 funds thus keeping Ickenham the Best Village in which to live.
Thank you, David Edington