- 2016 Event Report -
Published 12th September 2016

Well, what a difference a year makes!

After two years of atrocious rain this year’s Village Fete was blessed with glorious sunshine, and the visitors kept on coming. In fact it was one of the busiest years ever, with over 1,300 cars in the car park and many more arriving by foot, and hopefully also one of the most entertaining years.

We had more fairground attractions than ever, three bouncy castles to choose from, a new “Kiddies Corner” for the toddlers and new tennis and hockey challenges alongside such Fete stalwarts as target bowls, china smashing, archery and the train ride. The coconut shy was faced with such a deluge of sharp shooters that it ran out of coconuts and had to shut up shop early!

We had a wider selection of food outlets than ever. New entrants such as a “Gin & Fizz” bar and paella stall seemed to go down very well alongside a superb BBQ (run by the Green Tye & Perry Green Society), a roast pork carvery, vegetarian/satay option from Tickle Cottage and donuts. Our own bar enthusiastically run by MH Football Club along with the teas and cakes expertly run by village volunteers each served huge numbers of guests and made significant contributions to the result. There were two ice cream vans but the queues suggested that three would not have gone amiss and we know that over 5000 hot sugary donuts were served.

The Dog Show, run by the Little Hadham MediVet team, was hugely successful. All of the 13 classes were oversubscribed, with entrants from far afield mixing happily with local dog owners. We also had a separate Dog Agility Competition this year, run by Red Dog Training, which was very popular. The white elephant, clothes and book stalls did a roaring trade, as did the raffle and there was live music from the Bocking Brass Band plus other events and stalls far too numerous to mention. 

We are delighted to report that the profit from this year’s Fete is over £17,000. This is a marvellous result; more than the last two years combined.

Of course, an event this size does not just happen. There is a huge amount of time and sheer hard work in putting it together and running it on the day. We would like to thank everyone involved for all their efforts and fantastic spirit and goodwill. We had a marvellous team of volunteers (although we could always do with more) and we could not do it without you! A big thank you also to Dr. Roh and Kevin Gregory for continuing to allow car parking on their fields, which is so vital for the running of the Fete.

Finally, while we go to great lengths to ensure the extra traffic which the Fete generates has as little impact as possible on the village, there is inevitably some disruption on the day and we thank everyone for their understanding and co-operation.