Ickenham Festival

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 February 2011 the Festival Team is:

David Edington - Chairman	Doug Neilson - Vice Chair	Nickki Summerfield - Secretary
	Dave Kershaw	Emma Hawkesworth
Alan Noad	Ron May	Jake Shurey
Des Gutteridge	Richard Tosdevin	Jane Whybrow

I would like to start by opening this report with a big THANK YOU to you all for coming along this evening and we hope to receive feed back on your experiences of both Ickenham Festival 2010 and the two years of fundraising events leading up to it.

Two years ago you voted me in to serve my second term as chairman and to lead the team in delivering The Festival in 2010. We were buoyed on by the successful Festival in 2008 and were starting the two year cycle in a secure financial position. Ron and Emma Joined The Team bringing with them both practical help and a link into Glebe School.

During the last two years, and excluding Festival Week 2010, The Festival Team has arranged no less than 16 fund raising events. All proving very popular and raising extra funds for this year’s Festival. We had the Race Nights, Children’s Discos, and Barn Dances along with the introduction of a new event to us, The Bollywood Night at Vyners School which raised not only £530 for Festival funds but also the same amount for Cancer Research UK. Nikki organised a couple of Quiz Nights raising funds for The Festival as well as £450 for local groups and charities.

In January 2010, after a seed was sown in my head, Doug and Nikki went on to arrange a Burns Night in The Village Hall complete with “Piper, Haggis and the Works.” Please be tactful when asking them to arrange another one next January!

The Ickenham Festive Community Nights carry on going from strength to strength with many local groups now realising this is an ideal opportunity to promote themselves, and raise funds in the run up to Christmas. (this year Fri. 10th Dec) Our Festive Lights along the shops are now part of Ickenham’s Christmas experience along with the highly acclaimed illuminated tree beside the pond that we have arranged for the last two years. This alone cost us £2500 but it certainly puts Ickenham on the map at Christmas. We would like to thank LBH and local shopkeepers for helping towards these costs and The Village Hall Association for giving storage space for the decorations 11 months of the year!

The Swakeleys Shield, which is awarded annually at The Festival Barn Dance for services to the community of Ickenham, was presented to Pam Jeffries and her husband Doug in 2009. They do so much behind the scenes for conservation within Ickenham’s Village Centre. At The Barn Dance this year after much skulduggery by the Festival Team Jenny and I were presented with The Shield ourselves. It is a privilege to have our names inscribed alongside some of Ickenham’s icons and we thank The Team for that. Since the Library refurbishment, and with Alan’s help The Shield is now displayed there for all to see.

Turning to this year’s Festival, Alan and Janet Noad once again produced a very accurate and informative programme. In excess of 2000 were sold and along with the advertising revenue arranged by Doug the programme turns in a useful profit!

Once again I, and many of The Team took the whole week off work to enjoy The Festival Week. Our familiar green shirts (thanks Gayle) were seen in gardens, churches, library, theatre and sports clubs. Set amidst the beautiful flower festival at St. Giles’ Church David Millen had arranged Lunchtime Music every weekday where we had the pleasure of listening to music from each of Ickenham’s four schools as well as a very talented pianist.

Ickenham Open Gardens took a leap forward this year with no less than 21 residents opening their gardens. Some first timers had been encouraged to open by The Horticultural Society whom we thank for helping extend the range. The hospitality offered by all garden owners never ceases to amaze me and I know that a substantial amount of money is 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!

Our Festival events were also very well supported with an enormous convoy of bi/tricycles on The Festival Cycle Ride (thanks Mark @ Bikewise) the people who got all dressed up for the Mamma Mia Sing-a-Long@ Douay Martyrs (thanks Liz) the Local Walks (thanks to the Bowlts) and Family Ramble. The Wednesday Sports Evening in Milton Court proved a great success as well and thanks there must go to all the groups running a base for us and Des Gutteridge who managed to see my vision (through the bottom of a beer glass in The Coach) and went with it!

Gala Day. After the rain during the previous evening we woke to a dry but slightly windy day. With nearly double the number of pitches sold than previous years we had a lot to arrange but all the preparations went fairly smoothly with Richard and Ron arranging the field with help from the rest of the team and extra volunteers.

Nikki and her team set off for Milton Court to be greeted by hundreds of people wishing to take part in the procession through The Village to Swakeleys. The five different classes were identified and judged then the procession set off to the sounds of The Yiewsley and West Drayton Band along with The Ruislip Air Traing Corps Band. (no RAF flypast this time, with so much going on it was decided by The Team to arrange that for the previous Saturday.)

Once at Swakeleys the rest of the afternoon was enjoyed by the 1000s of attendees watching The Arena events (thanks Eileen and Bill) visiting the stalls and attractions or simply taking in the atmosphere. The Festival Team laid on and heavily subsidised the large Bouncy Castle, Archery, Ferris Wheel, Land Train, Crazy Golf and Go-Carts.

Our President David Millen accompanied The Mayor David Yarrow around the stalls and to the judging of The Scarecrow Competition. He was also presented with a cheque for The Mayor’s Charity by The Festival. All too soon the afternoon was drawing to a close and I presented the medals to the Football Competition winners (thank you Ickenham Youth for arranging this) before everything was packed away for The Evening Concert.

With a different license from LBH (thanks Dave K) and an extended sound system arranged by Chris Glass we had sold 1400 tickets to The Evening Concert and still could have sold more! Perry parsons with The Vyners Swing Band played alongside Stardust (the new name for The Perry Parsons Big Band) to our audience. It was a chilly night, hot chocolate and the loos proved very popular but everybody had a fantastic evening finishing off with the last two numbers being accompanied by the now traditional fireworks over Swakeleys House. (thanks John Arnold and his team)

Sunday saw the big clear up at Swakeleys (we’ll be more pro-active in asking for help with this next time) The Open Air Service, the second Bike Ride and The Duck Race along the River Pinn. With such low rainfall leading up to The Festival something had to be done to get them Ducks moving! On Thursday some of The Team and Chris Potter walked the route and removed debris and excess growth from the river. On Friday LBH came and strimmed viewing areas along the banks for the spectators . Ron and I along with Nigel engineered a dam upstream to be released at the start of The Duck Race to give them “an extra push.” All those attending will confirm that it certainly worked!!

As you can see from David Thorpe’s Accounts, the prudent spending in staging this year’s Festival along with our well supported fund raising events during the two year cycle and Festival Week has left us in a secure position for Festival 2012. I am sure David will be giving you more details in his report later this evening.

Please remember to visit our website for details of future events and to download booking forms. Doug Neilson keeps it updated and we thank him for this. If you were to visit the site this evening you will see that our Jumble Sale is next Saturday and we require both stock to sell and help in selling it. Just turn up Friday evening or Saturday morning.

Finally I must thank the whole Festival Team who all play their part in putting on our events, the local groups and organisations that get so 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 £30,000 was raised for charities and good causes during Ickenham Festival 2010!