- 2017 Fete Report and Result -
Published 18th September 2017

Our Village Fete was blessed with glorious sunshine again this year and we welcomed more visitors than ever before for a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.

We are delighted to report that the profit from this year’s Fete is over £18,000.  A fantastic result!

We had a wide range of fairground rides and bouncy castles to choose from, along with new attractions such as a 30ft climbing wall and giant foot-darts game.  Much Hadham Toddler Group and Youth Create put together an expanded “Kiddies Corner” for the toddlers which included a soft-play area, ball pond, face-painting and character meet and greet performances. Fete stalwarts such as target bowls, china smashing, archery, train ride, coconut shy, roll-a-ball and tombola continue to be as popular as ever and were all inundated with players.

The white elephant, clothes and book stalls all did a roaring trade, as did the raffle which sold almost 6000 tickets for the fantastic prizes on offer. Thanks to everyone who bought tickets, your contribution really makes a difference. There was live music from the Bocking Brass Band plus over 40 trade stalls offering a wide range of goods and services. 

We had a super range of food outlets this year with new entrants Waffleway going down well with the crowds as did the superb BBQ (run by the Perry Green & Green Tye Preservation Society), roast pork carvery, “Gin & Fizz” bar, paella stall and vegetarian/satay options. The inclusion of the new “slushies” outlet was particularly welcomed on such a hot day.

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.

Once again The Dog Show, run by the Little Hadham MediVet team, was hugely successful.  It has become a firm fixture for many owners wishing to show their animals and we are so grateful to Helen and her team for running such a popular, well respected, fun show.  

This year we reduced the number of classes by one to prevent the judging time running over as it has done in previous years.  This worked well although all classes were still oversubscribed, with entrants from far afield mixing happily with local dog owners.  The separate Dog Agility Competition, run by Red Dog Training, was once again very popular with visitors.

Thanks to the additional car park at the Barn School and improved traffic management, we parked nearly 1500 cars all without incident and without creating the usual gridlock on the high street. Parking in the village streets was also significantly reduced with no reported issues. Thank you to all the residents that helped us by moving their cars off the main roads for the duration of the event.

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, Maureen Renny, Kevin Gregory and David Bottrill for allowing us to use their land for access and car parking, which is so vital for the running of the Fete.

Finally, while we go to great lengths to ensure the extra traffic and number of visitors 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 cooperation.