Dunchurch Festival Group

The Dunchurch Festival Committee (to give it its original name) was founded in 1975 by Geoff Mousley, a local businessman. Previously, all local organisations had their own fundraising events. Geoff's intention was that all the organisations should combine and have a week-long festival and then divide the proceeds among themselves. (There was a tacit expectation that for an organisation to receive funds, there should be a representative at each meeting.) The first fete was opened by Bill Maynard and the second by Chris Tarrant. Although some were doubtful about paying a celebrity to do this, Geoff always thought big and generally, was always proved right.

There was no hall large enough to host the week of events so a marquee and portable toilets were hired and placed on the sports field. A huge amount of work was involved in setting up the marquee, electrics, installing fridges and freezers, collecting and erecting staging, tables, chairs, bars borrowed and deliveries from breweries accepted to set up the bar. Each event needed to have the marquee redressed and then stripped down at the end ready for the next day. Very tiring work! It is little surprise then that it was largely Festival members, led by Marilyn Greenwood who took on the challenge of building a new village hall. It was at that time that a temporary change to donations was made giving 75% of funds to a village hall campaign and 25% to other organisations. This ceased once the hall had been built.

Ann Wright remembers ‘The fete day procession rivalled Rugby Carnival, as most of the village organisations entered a float. Always colourful, always noisy, always great! It would start from the junior school, through the traffic lights and wind its way along many of the roads in the village, ending up on the sports field. *This was before the days of Traffic Management Companies being needed and the police were always happy to help. Common sense prevailed and we always took precautions to ensure everyone was safe. It is such a shame that regulations have stopped that from happening now.

Saturday was fete day and featured great entertainment. After, we changed the interior of the tent yet again for the final event, a band night with food. Sunday was clear up day. The marquee company arrived early on Sunday morning, so we had to be there by 7.00 a.m. Sadly, due to cost and time restraints, we had to abandon the idea of the marquee and reduce the Festival to the fete using the junior school as the venue and other village sites for events scattered throughout the year. However, this ensured the continuation of Festival and once the village hall had been built, we were able to move back on to the sports field.’

For some years, Festival of Fire involved a ‘withy lantern’ procession through the village to Done Cerce playing field where on the first occasion, a huge structure in the shape of the Houses of Parliament was burned! Ann remembers, ‘Before the event we held workshops where we made the lanterns and shadow play puppets. (We were fortunate to have an excellent Area Youth Leader in the village, Frank Redfern, who was invaluable with his help and contacts.) On the day, we needed to strip the turf from the playing field and build the bonfire from pallets. These were covered with cardboard and painted before burning. Fireworks, soup and hot dogs followed. The following days we returned the field to its former state using a magnet to pick up any nails and relaying the turf. It was sad when we were unable to continue but it became too expensive and again Health and Safety and other regulations made it too difficult.’

Over the years, the format of Festival may have changed but the ethos remains the same. It promotes social cohesion and provides entertainment for all and funds for village groups. Current Chair Rob Collings and his team work hard to maintain the groups success and thanks to their determination to maintain the spectacle of a roadway procession, *have trained some of their own members to comply with current regulations and have obtained permission for a short Rugby Road closure.

Our thanks to Paul Smith and Ann Wright for their help with this feature.