Little Shelford Village week-end
The Little Shelford Entertainments Committee presents Village Weekend 2023
All events in the Marquee and on the Wale Recreation Ground unless otherwise stated
Friday 15th September 7.30pm for 8pm
Dance to Live Music from “Loaded”
Join us for food, fun and dancing to music from “Loaded” with covers from across the years. Pre-order street food or buy a burger from our local vendor Purple-Pepper and enjoy the fully licensed bar. Tickets available for Adults (16+). Tickets £20 per person. Tickets for sale from 1st July.
Book on EventBright or Liz Carrothers (lizcarrothers@icloud.com) or call on 07808 128037.
Saturday 16th September
1pm Family Fun and Village Show
Join us for free from 1pm to 5pm for family fun, mini farm animal and pets experience, guided nature walks, family games, bouncy castles, village society stalls and many other attractions for young and old. Exhibit your Scarecrow in wacky head gear (details below) and enter your produce, baking and art into the Village Show, categories for children and adults (details to follow). BBQ and licenced Bar available all afternoon.
The Cameo Cabaret Doors Open 7.00pm
Little Shelford Variety Evening fun for everyone featuring Cameo Acapella Choir and a Barbers shop quartet with other sketches, monologues and music.
Venue: Little Shelford Memorial Hall
Time: Doors open 7 pm, start at 7.30 pm with a meal break at 8.30 pm
Tickets: sold by Kate 07940 217763; kjwaldock@yahoo.co.uk and Sarah Coppendale 842498; coppendales@btinternet.com.Cost: £15/head around tables of 8
Licensed bar and supper included
Sunday 17th September
All Saints Harvest Celebration 11am
All ages welcome, there will be songs and celebration for Harvest in the Marquee. Non-perishable gifts will be collected for Jimmy’s night shelter. Join us after the service for tea, coffee, cake and conversation. Stay for....
Village History Walk 12.30 Sunday 17th
75 minute walk departing the Marquee and including the Village Pump and All Saints Church. Led by local residents with a history flair!
Family Picnic 1 pm
Bring your picnic, family and friends to a relaxed late Summer afternoon on the Wale in the shade of the Marquee.
Scarecrow Competition for all the family and local Groups
To add something a bit different and because Scarecrows make us smile and spread happiness, we want families to start work on their scarecrows at the beginning of September so that they start to appear around the village for two weeks before the village weekend. Create an amusing scarecrow scene with a hat theme and display your scarecrows on your drive or garden where they can be seen by passers-by. Then on Saturday 16th September move your scarecrows to the Wale Recreation Ground ready for the scarecrow judging.as part of the Saturday Village Fete. We are even offering prizes for the best scarecrows! First, second and third placed scarecrows will be awarded a cash prize of £30, £20 and £10. For further details on the scarecrow competition, contact Christa christajostock@hotmail.com
Please come along and support us in bringing the villagers of Little Shelford, their friends and families together for fun & friendship. We are raising funds to improve our community so if you would like us to consider donating to your group or project please email us. For more information, offers of help or to run a stall on Saturday afternoon contact: Jo Boyle: joboyle780@gmail.com or call 07774 843770 or 01223 843984
Posted June 1 2023

Little Shelford Fun Week-end
Hang on to your Hats - Keep the date
Friday 15th to Sunday 17th September 2023
Little Shelford Entertainments Committee (LSEC) organises the popular village weekend that has been running almost every year for the last 20 years, this is built on a tradition that had lapsed in the 1980’s of an annual Village Feast that stretched back for centuries.
The event will be a traditional three days of activities taking place on the Wale Recreation Ground over the Weekend. The activities include live music, dancing and food on Friday evening, a traditional Village Fete, family games and Village Show on Saturday afternoon and an All Saints Harvest celebration, a history walk and other more relaxed activities on Sunday. We hope that there might also be a Community Cabaret in the village Memorial Hall on Saturday evening.
Help us plan the Village Weekend 2023 with your suggestions and ideas
The weekend is in the early stages of planning and details will follow in the next newsletter so there is still plenty of time for the Village Community to come up with ideas and suggestions for the weekend. So, if you have thoughts, or comments please e-mail our LSEC secretary, Jo Boyle, joboyle780@gmail.com with your ideas.
The LSEC committee is also very welcoming of new members and those who want to volunteer to help over the weekend itself, even if you don’t have time to join the committee. Please contact Jo if you would like to contribute in any way.
We want to weekend to be very inclusive and to have events for all ages and interests so we encourage you to come forward with your ideas.
Posted Feb 28 2023
Fun week-end new event
A new event is being introduced for the Little Shelford Fun Week-end.
Dominic Bell (Acting) and Dave Adams (Musical Director) propose a new venture as part of the Little Shelford Fun Weekend on the evening of September 16 in the Little Shelford Memorial Hall. We are sounding out interest in performing as actors or singers or musicians or directing or assisting in a fun-filled evening of comic sketches, monologues, songs and musicianship.
We believe there is untapped talent out there but need you to get in touch to say you like this idea and would be interested in participating. We anticipate an evening which will showcase the talents of the whole cross-section of age groups in the village, but realistically for performers post-pantomime age and upwards. The evening will take the form of a variety of entertainments to an audience seated at tables with food and drink.
So have a think about whether you are happy to bring along your comic performance (monologue or group), song (solo or group), comic poem, magic act etc. We have plenty of acting and singing material to offer if you are happy to try something new with our help. We also need offers to help with box office and backstage. Dave and Dom are experienced directors and look forward to hearing from you via drbell@live.co.uk
Assuming we get enough expressions of interest in this venture, we would like to hold ‘auditions’ towards the end of April so you can run pieces and pitch proposals to us.
Dave and Dom
Posted Feb 27 2023
Little Shelford Fun week-end
Well, what a fun weekend!
See what happens when it gets postponed for a year!
The Little Shelford fun weekend came and went in a blaze of late summer sunshine. With it came the crowds too, and it was so nice to see so many people make it out for the weekend. Having felt somewhat like a village in hibernation for the last year and a half, there was a great showing of people throughout the weekend, whether it be the Friday night disco and dance, the Saturday fete, the real ale and craft beer festival, the Sunday service, history walk or the picnic. Well done for making it out and making it feel like things were ‘normal’ again. If only for a while…
Friday night’s format was more informal than usual – a disco, no fancy dress, and food vans instead of the formal, sit down affair. With about 200 attendees, this seemed to be the best turnout for several years. No doubt helped by the warm weather, the knockdown ticket price, a fallow year under lockdown, and the more mix and mingle approach. But whatever it was, it seemed that people enjoyed themselves, and this is likely to be the format for next time. As ever, Simon Mackinder and his colleagues put on a great performance for Friday evening in terms of lights, sounds and video, and helped make it a special occasion. People were strewn in and out of the large marquee and Steak & Honour, and the Wandering Yak both seemed busy serving up to a happy crowd of party goers. Mark and Barry were also busy with a large selection of ales and craft beers throughout Friday evening and into Saturday. David Munro kept supplies of wine available for intravenous purposes until well into the night. But then midnight came, and we all turned into pumpkins; such a pity the Saturday village fete did not have a prize category for that one. I can think of a few people who would have contended for that prize.
As it was, the fete did roll around, and we had a robust set of entries for many of the categories on Saturday. The scarecrows in particular made a good impression, perched as they were against the playground wall, looking like they were waiting for the revolution to come. The beavers eventually won a tightly judged competition (I think), but there were many great entries we had seen round the streets for a couple of weeks beforehand. Other scarecrows never made it to the Rec, but lingered around the village either to remain there or leave for earth orbit.
Not that there was much space on the Rec by early afternoon. It seemed that most of the village and surrounding parts had made it down in the warm and sunny weather to see the (new) artificial cricket strip and fete opened by our local MP, Anthony Browne, and see the mini animal farm including micropig (I missed it…it must have been small). Many thanks to REDMAYNE ARNOLD & HARRIS in particular for sponsoring that slot. There was a full set of stalls and events reflecting a truly wide variety of interests, clubs and activities that happens in the village. It felt almost normal, all apart from the absence of the Covid unfriendly bouncy castles and assault course, which we felt we could not have this year for the obvious reason.
Saturday afternoon was only marred by one scandal and that was in the final tug o’war. As you will all know, Little Shelford has always won the ‘Little Shelford vs the Rest of the World’ battle of the century (said without exaggeration every year). However, with the road closed to Great Shelford, a substitute rope was found. (No way through to collect the usual rope. This reminds me of the Times Headline a hundred years ago, ‘Fog in Channel, Continent cut off’. The continent was Great Shelford, and the Channel the shallow ford). However, the substitute rope was found wanting. In fact, it was found to have snapped under the extraordinary pulling power of those two battling sides. I had to declare the competition a dead heat (even if the Little Shelford side did retain more of the rope, I am not sure this important piece of information had made it into the royal and ancient rulebook). A couple of plasters were placed on the scorched knees of brave warriors (mostly under 10 years old – amazing what a plaster does for bravery at that age), and we got up and dusted ourselves down. Nonetheless, the village is still undefeated and we can hold our heads up high. Which some did well into Saturday night, as the beer festival continued on to live music and foggy heads, with the burbling sound of burgers and hotdogs being munched fading into the background of the band. David Jones looked a happy and satisfied Master Burgermaker.
There were of course no foggy heads, nor fog indeed, present for the litter pick up and general clearance before the Sunday Service, which always attracts a great turnout. But let’s be honest, there were not many people with the stomach and heart for clearing up the Rec that morning. Following on from the well attended Service, a goodly group of the hardy and curious paraded round the village and church to share tales of historical interest, covering such diverse topics as the background to Camping Close, through the history of football, to famous and Nobel prize winning residents of our village. As well as 900 years of history in our church!
Thank you to our sponsors especially REDMAYNE ARNOLD & HARRIS and THE NAVIGATOR, the organising committee, an anonymous donor, prize donors for the silent auction, and the many people who helped out with the most precious of all commodities, time and enthusiasm, to make the weekend a real community event.
Until next time!
Little Shelford Entertainments Committee
Posted Oct 2 2021
Scarecrow competition winners
Scarecrow
1st Beavers
2nd Munro’s recycled
Joint 3rd Super Kid Twins and Flying Harry Potter and Snitch



Links to other Little Shelford website pages
www.littleshelford.online/news
www.greatshelford.online/events
www.littleshelford.online/east-west-rail
www.littleshelford.online/parish-council
www.littleshelford.online/community-groups
www.littleshelford.online/businesses
www.littleshelford.online/pavilion
www.littleshelford.online/village-hall-wale-rec
www.littleshelford.online/village-people
www.littleshelford.online/health
www.littleshelford.online/planning
www.littleshelford.online/community-orchard
www.littleshelford.online/environment
www.littleshelford.online/history
www.littleshelford.online/phonebox-library
www.littleshelford.online/newsletter
www.littleshelford.online/scambs
Other local community websites
