Feast Day 2021 - Saturday 10th July

The organisers behind The Shelford Feast are running a free event on Shelford Rec with a licensed bar. There will be food vans and live music throughout the day, and the evening will feature classic soul and funk from sax player James Knight and his band of top session musicians, including vocalist Louise Marshall (Jools Holland, Pink Floyd). Continuing the classic soul theme, Terry Jones will close the night with his DJ set.

The event will be free to attend, though we’re asking people to let us know if they plan to come by dropping us an email with the names of those planning to attend to shelfordfeast@yahoo.com in order to monitor numbers and remain Covid-compliant.

Come Prepared

We will not have the usual marquee so all activity will be in the open. We are also not providing seating. As Covid-19 rules demand that anyone eating or drinking must be seated, then for your comfort bring either an easy-to-carry chair or a blanket for sitting on whilst consuming food or drink. The latter also serves as a personal form of refuge for the cooler evening temperatures. Your trusty umbrella could also be sensible insurance!

The above tells you what we are not providing. What we are providing is food and drink. Food will be on offer from food vans during both the afternoon (12:00-17:30) and evening (18:30-22:00) sessions. The open bar will be serving beer, lager, wine and soft drinks. There will also be a “Gin Bar” and nearby to the bar will be a strawberries and cream stall.

Feast Day

What's On

All timings are approximate, and acts may be subject to last minute changes

Afternoon Session

  • Bar opens at 12.00pm
  • 12.45pm – 1.30pm - Brass Quartet
  • 1.30pm – 2pm - George Jones
  • 2.15pm – 2.45pm - Sawston Samba
  • 3pm – 3.45pm - Phil Watts from Back to the 80's and 80's Unplugged
  • 4pm – 5pm - The Silverbacks Blues Band
  • Bar closes at 5.30pm

During the afternoon session on the recreation ground, Cambridge Science Centre will be running two shows for family audiences. Come and find out about your digestive journey in "Gums To Bum", and explore some amazing man-made materials in "Stronger By Design".

Alongside this event, Adele Teague from Creative Team Events will be running a Covid-safe drum circle.

We'll also have representatives from Shelford Playscape, Cambridge County Council, and a miniature train running through the afternoon.

Food will be on offer from food vans Al Chile, Wandering Yak, The Three Horseshoes BBQ and Pimp My Fish

Evening Session

  • Bar opens at 6.30pm
  • 7.30pm – 9pm James Knight Allstars – Classic Funk and Soul
  • 9pm – 10pm Terry Jones DJ set
  • Bar closes at 9.30pm

Food will be on offer from food vans Al Chile and The Three Horseshoes BBQ


Phil Watts

Louise Marshall

Feast Week 2022

A full Feast Week will be back again in 2022 with Tony Hadley and Trevor Nelson headlining a strong line-up of events. Tony Hadley will be performing on Friday 8th July 2022 and Trevor Nelson on Saturday 9th July 2022.

Everyone who has already bought a ticket has been emailed and given the choice to either carry the ticket forward to next year or have a refund. We are delighted that so many people are already excited about next year and are holding onto their tickets - we look forward to seeing you the 2022 acts with you next year!

Buy tickets for 2022

Tony Hadley

How to find the Feast

The Recreation Ground
Woollards Lane
Great Shelford
Cambridge CB22 5LZ
Email: shelfordfeast@yahoo.com

About us

The Shelford Feast goes back to medieval times. In the early part of the twentieth century The Feast was held on the sports ground, where Leeway Avenue is now, moving to the land behind the former De Freville Arms in the 1930's. The main feature of The Feast in those days was a funfair with Stanley Thurston Amusements featuring prominently. The Feast continued until the Second World War, the last one being held in 1938 until revived in 1994. The Shelford Feast was brought back to life because of concerns about the effects of financial cuts on Shelford Primary School.

The revival was the brainchild of Jerry Brown, whose father Basil had taken part in organising the Feasts which took place in Shelford before the Second World War. Jerry grabbed a few pals, told them how hard the school would be hit by the cuts and the group called The Bunch was born. In six weeks The Bunch had organised a Feast in the grounds of the school and all proceeds were given to the school.

Now a regular village event, The Shelford Feast maintains the tradition of bringing the community together to celebrate and enjoy local produce, all with the aim of having a good time and raising money for local good causes. The Feast has raised over £338,000 which has all gone to village causes, mainly those which help young people, and has entertained all who have attended.

The Bunch is the group who organise the Feast every year. All volunteers themselves, they rely on up to 100 local volunteers for the weeks around The July Feast, which now lasts a full week with events every evening. Come and join us!

Jerry

Contacting the Feast

Volunteering

The Shelford Feast relies upon voluntary helpers – and we can never have enough! Please contact Sarah Coppendale on 01223 842498 or The Feast at shelfordfeast@yahoo.com to offer your services, however small! Volunteer and become part of a team that gets its reward from the enjoyment The Shelford Feast brings to the village each summer not to mention the good causes it supports.

For example we have teams of people who help set up The Feast over the weekend preceding The Feast and a team who help tidy away. For this you should be practical, willing and reasonably fit.

We have a team that prepares and serves food throughout the week. You could offer to serve, do a turn on the till or the barbecue on any of the nights during the week, or be on the rota for Feast Day itself. A small team prepares and chops vegetables on the morning of The Feast while another team supervises the fires and stays up late to spit roast the meat.

Then there are the folks who drum up sponsorship, advertising and produce the programme, tickets – and this website. These are things that can be done in the months before The Feast and if you have computer, layout or design skills you can certainly help us.

Are you used to bar work? Our bar is on the go every evening from Tuesday to Saturday of Feast Week plus most of Saturday and Sunday. We’d appreciate skilled helpers, who work on a rota system.

Volunteers have raised £338,000 since 1994 – all to local good causes!

Getting the idea? There’s scope for all talents! The Feast is organised by a committee of about 15 who meet throughout the year to choose the events and make decisions about how we go about things. If you are interested in organising, why not talk to one of the organisers (that’s people in the red Feast shirts) during the week? It’s a longer term commitment but if you can show you’ve helped us for a while and would like to join the decision makers – and if you’re younger than some of us – you could find yourself being very useful indeed. Come and join us!

Volunteers