With this week’s Government announcement that the 21st June easing of restrictions is delayed, our Feast Committee has been faced with having to re-evaluate some of its major events. Amanda Borrill reports…
Feast week 2021 runs from 3rd to 11th July and, as in previous years, much work has gone on behind the scenes scheduling a series of events aimed to entertain and bring together the whole community. Steve Cox, Feast Committee Chair, tells more:
“In January, we were trying to be as positive as possible in planning Feast Week events. We really wanted Feast Week to be an ‘event’ but also as normal as possible and involving the community. The primary aim was not to raise lots of money but to raise enough to cover costs, to support our beneficiaries and to provide a taste of normality. Therefore, we are all incredibly disappointed that some events have been cancelled, but we don’t want to risk the health of the population of our villages or the financial situation of the Feast. We ask you please to bear with us this week as we look at the full possibilities of re-scheduling events or running some under present restrictions”.
Community collaboration
It is very clear from talking to Steve that the focus this year has been very much on community collaboration. Behind the scenes is a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers along with HI Friends who have been working hard to create a varied programme of events and a comprehensive list of what is planned is due to be published next week by Histon & Impington Parish Council in their free and village-wide distributed HisImp News.
Steve continues:
“We had planned that as many events as possible would be run under Step 3 of the Government’s roadmap out of COVID, but hoped, for Feast Week, we would be in Step 4. The announcement by the Government on Monday was not unexpected but makes the organisation (and therefore financial risk) of the larger music events much more complicated. The higher rate of transmission of the Delta variant is also a concern which prompted the Feast team to re-think some planned events. The sad fact is that we don’t want to risk transmission of the virus at crowd based events where managing social distancing is very hard”.
The, sadly unavoidable, casualties are listed below although the team is optimistic that these can be rescheduled for later in the year.
Cancelled:
- Riot on the Rec : Friday 2nd July
- Big Band Concert : Saturday 3rd July
- Little Histon Railway Display : Saturday 10th July
- Sports and Funday : Sunday 11th July
- 5-a-side Football Tournament : all week
Colin Myles, organiser of planned live gig Riot on the Rec, told us:
“Cancelling events is something that nobody wants to do, especially at this time when people are wanting to get back to some kind of normality. It is always a really tough call but with rising cases and the extended lockdown making some of the logistics difficult we didn’t want to put attendees, or the HI Friends charity at risk.”
All other events for Feast Week are still under review and it is hoped that, in line with social distancing guidelines, it might still be possible to run the Feast Market on Saturday 10th July and the Explorer Society Piano Concert on Thursday 8th July.
Remaining positive
Steve is keen that we all remain focused on the positives – of which there are many – and adds:
“Not everything is cancelled and next week’s HisImp News will be publishing the full list of planned events. You can also get more information on what is lined up via the 2021 Feast website, here“.
This year also sees launch of The Feast Loyalty Card (see below). This new initiative aims to get people visiting our local businesses with the chance of winning a prize. Further details can be found on the Feast website and will also be in HisImp News.
Also planned is a range of online talks and initiatives – all to be listed in the HisImp news and HI HUB What’s On.
We finish with a final thank you from Steve who is immensely grateful for all the support received and says: “This year the efforts of the committee have been tremendous and I thank all of them for getting us to where we are today”.
Remember to also check HI HUB What’s On for up-to-date information on all local events.