Popular festival cancelled due to organisational issues

The popular Woburn Village Festival will not be taking place this year.
Woburn Village Festival.Woburn Village Festival.
Woburn Village Festival.

The annual event, which was scaled down from the Oyster Festival to give it a smaller, more family-friendly focus, usually takes place in September.

But committee member Gill Green revealed that problems in putting together an organising committee and finding a suitable date had caused the cancellation of what would had been the 23rd festival.

She said: “It started in 1994 when Eddie Cheeseman, the then landlord of the Black Horse, persuaded all the other pubs and restaurants in Woburn to have an Oyster Day.

“The village joined in with a seaside theme and there was sand and seaweed on the Pitchings, bucket and spades, plus a mermaid!

“The Oyster Festival grew from there into an annual early-September weekend. Latterly we had dropped “oyster” from the name – although Loch Fyne restaurant still provided the little molluscs.”

Gill added: “We hope that a festival can be organised in 2017 and a date found that does not clash with activities at Woburn Abbey. And that the spirit of 1994 can be recaptured.”