A day of music, food and drink on the recreation ground in Great
Shelford
Profits donated to local good causes: £338,000 since 1994!
Feast Day 2021 - Saturday 10th July
The organisers behind The Shelford Feast are running a free event
on Shelford rec with a licensed bar (12pm to 5.30pm, then 6.30pm
to 9.30pm).
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. Expected finish time around 10.30pm. Timings and acts may be
subject to change and all is, of course, Covid-dependent, but
further details will be released closer to the time.
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.co.uk in
order to monitor numbers and remain Covid-compliant.
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!
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!
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.co.uk 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!
