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 2008 the Festival Team is:

From our Chairman, David Edington, October 2008

    It is my pleasure and privilege to once again report on the Festival Committee activities since our last General Meeting in October 2004.  Thank you for attending our general meeting this evening and I hope you learn some more about what the Festival Team arrange during the Festival’s two year cycle and some of the background to our events.

Two years ago you voted me in to replace your outgoing chairman David Millen who had conceived the idea of The Festival of Ickenham way back in 1976 and steered it to the amazing Festival Week of 2006. Back then I sat here quite daunted by the task ahead, but with the experience of existing team members and new ones joining we quickly made plans for our fundraising activities for the next two years to build up our finances and deliver Ickenham Festival 2008.

During this two year cycle, and excluding Festival Week, the Festival team has arranged no less than 15 fund raising events. These range from Discos and fun nights for the children to Quiz nights for the more sedate of you, with Race Nights, Barn Dances and Christmas Festive Nights as well. In fact all of our events have been over subscribed, enjoyed by those attending and turned in a profit to be put towards Ickenham Festival 2008.

The Ickenham Festive Community Night carries on going from strength to strength with more shops participating and also the involvement of other organisations necessitating the Guide Hut being opened to accommodate more stalls and the Library opening for activities last year. With financial help from traders and LBH the Christmas decorations now run along all the shopping parades so this year we are putting all our budget into “the big one.”

The Swakeleys Shield, which is awarded annually, at The Ickenham Festival Family Barn Dance, for services to the community of Ickenham, was presented to The Ickenham Residents Association in 2007 and to The Churches Holiday Club in 2008. Both being very worthy recipients.

Turning to Festival Week, and having decided in late 2006 to adopt “The Ickenham Festival” as our name we felt it was time to revamp the Festival Programme. A more eye catching design was required and after many hours of hard work by Janet and Alan Noad our Programme went on sale in mid May and sold a record breaking 2100 copies!

I took the whole of Festival Week off work and intended to attend every event in the programme. Unfortunately I failed on the first Saturday (so many things all going on at the same time) but I think you will all agree that The Festival Team and our striking Green T shirts were seen at every event during Festival Week.

Ickenham Open Gardens once again proved very popular with some new gardens joining us and others taking a rest giving us a total of 14 this time. The hospitality offered by these garden owners never ceases to amaze me and I know substantial amounts of money are raised for their chosen charities. In fact reports back from organisers of all events during the week suggest that all were well supported and that those trying to raise money for their chosen good causes succeeded in their endeavours.

We awoke on Gala Day to the same very good weather we had enjoyed during the whole of the previous week. Some 60+ stall holders converged on Swakeleys House to set up their stalls.

The procession gathered in Milton Court to witness our now traditional flypast, before setting off precisely on time under the strict control of Nikki Summerfield and her team. The successful shorter route to Swakeleys, although disappointing to residents of Court Road and Swakeleys Drive proved to be less onerous on the children and gave easier access to Swakeleys’ grounds.

Once at Swakeleys the rest of the afternoon was enjoyed by the 1000s of attendees participating in sports, sideshows and attractions or simply taking in the atmosphere. The Festival laid on and subsidised two Bouncy Castles, Crazy Golf, Tea Cup Rides and the Hot Air Balloon.

Our President, David Millen, accompanied The Mayor, Cllr. Brian Crowe around the stalls and to the judging of the Scarecrow Competition where I presented him with a cheque for this year’s Mayors Charity. All too soon the afternoon was over and the grounds were cleared for the setting up of the evening concert. Such is the popularity of The Vyners’ Swing Band and The Perry Parsons Big Band that the tickets had sold out a full week before the concert but those with tickets were treated, as always, to a fantastic concert with the last two numbers accompanying the amazing firework display.

As you can see from David Thorpe’s accounts, the prudent spending in staging this year’s Festival, plus the well supported fund raising events during the week has left us in a secure financial position for 2010.

Sunday saw the Open Air Service at Swakeleys, The Family Bike Ride, the unveiling of the re-engraved Gospel Oak plaque and my personal favourite, the Duck Race. 200 ducks floating downstream from the Copthall Road footbridge to the finishing line at Swakeleys Road bridge with 100s of spectators lining the river banks and Swakeleys Road bridge cheering on their duck!

For those of you who haven’t yet discovered our website, Doug Neilson keeps it updated with details of past and forthcoming events as well as an ever increasing number of photographs of past activities. Well worth a visit!

Back down to earth and fundraising has already started for Ickenham Festival 2010 with in excess of £1000 being taken at our Jumble Sale in September and over £900 profit from the Family Race Night at the beginning of this month.

Finally I must thank The Festival Team who all play their part in putting on our events, the local groups and organisations that get involved, especially during Festival Week and all of you that support our fundraising events that make The Ickenham Festival possible. After some research in the week after The Festival, it is my belief that some £25,000 was raised for charities and good causes during Ickenham Festival Week 2008.

Thank You              

David Edington  

Ickenham Festival Team Chairman.