East Ilsley Sheep Fair

30/11/2024

The East Ilsley Sheep Fair is a Not-For-Profit and donates to local groups and organisations. One of those groups is 1st Compton Scouts & Guides

23/11/2024

The East Ilsley Sheep Fair is a Not-For-Profit and donates to local groups and organisations. One of those groups is FIPS, the friends of the Ilsleys Primary School.

19/11/2024

Sheep Fair - 8th June 2025 - Volunteers Needed!

We've got a team building to support the event but we need more volunteers please...

We need as many people as possible to do an hour stint here and there on entrance, raffle, tea tent etc. Please drop us a note if you can help.

Additionally, we are building up a site team in the month or so before to help move stuff, get site ready, put up marquee etc.

Also, if you have the skills or just want to help we need to build out some specific sub committees around activities and entertainment, and marketing/sponsorship/fundraising.

Remember the Sheep Fair is Not-For-Profit and surplus is donated to local community groups. Come join the fun and give something back at the same time.

29/10/2024

🐑✨ Can you help with the Sheep Fair 2025? ✨🐑

For everyone who volunteered this year and anyone interested in joining our team next year:

⏰ If you can spare a few hours (or more!) over the coming months, please join us for an informal meeting on Monday, November 4th at 7:30pm at the Swan, East Ilsley 🍻

There's no obligation, and everyone is welcome to come along and learn more! 🎉

14/10/2024

🐑🎉 Save the Date! 🎉🐑

📆The Sheep Fair is back for 2025! 📆

🐏 Please put Sunday 8 June 2025 on your calendar🐏

💃 And don’t miss the early fun starting with the Friday Night Dance on 6 June🕺

If you’d like to get involved we can never have too many helpers even if it’s just for an hour or two on the day so please get in touch🙌❤️

14/10/2024

🐑🎉 Save the Date! 🎉🐑

📆The Sheep Fair is back for 2025! 📆

🐏 Please put Sunday 8 June 2025 on your calendar🐏

💃 And don’t miss the early fun starting with the Friday Night Dance on 6 June🕺

If you'd like to get involved we can never have too many helpers even if it’s just for an hour or two on the day so please get in touch🙌❤️

17/09/2024

How this amazing character will be sorely missed by everyone - he was such a part of East Ilsley life that it is hard to imagine what it will be like without him.

Raising a glass to him today and remembering the good times! 🍻Pete 💔

11/07/2024

🎉 ANNOUNCEMENT🎉

We were so thrilled to bring back the East Ilsley Sheep Fair this year, and it was a huge success thanks to all of YOU!

💷⭐️Best of all - we've raised enough funds to run next year AND we're left with a decent amount to go directly back into the village via donations to our non-profit and charity groups ⭐️💷

We're already gearing up for Sheep Fair 2025 with exciting plans after taking lots of feedback on board:

🎶 More live music & entertainment
🐾 More classes in the popular Dog Show
🍔 Even more delicious food choices
🔊 Upgraded PA System

And many, many more…

Dates for your diary

💃 Dance Night - 6th June 2025
🗓 Sheep Fair - 8th June 2025

Want to be part of the fun? We still need more volunteers - please email us at [email protected] to join the team or share your feedback and ideas.

🐏 Let's make Sheep Fair 2025 the best one yet! 🐏

23/06/2024

We're in the news again! 👇🏻

We can't believe it's been two weeks since our fantastic Sheep Fair and we wanted to say a huge thank you again to everyone who came along and enjoyed and supported us 🐏☀️

We're just tying up the final figures so we'll be able to let you know soon how much we'll be donating back into the village groups, but let's just say that it was a success!

Watch this space for more news...

About 700 people attended a historic village sheep fair which returned after five years.

06/06/2024

Planning on entering the Dog Show next week? Here are the categories 👇🏻🐕

🏵Best Looking
🏵Best Veteran (8+)
🏵Prettiest Puppy (up to 18 months)
🏵Best Junior Handler
🏵Waggiest Tail
🏵Fastest Sit

Registration from 12.30 with Dog Show at 2.00pm kindly sponsored by Larkmead Vets 🏆

06/06/2024

🎪The marquee is up!! Now to get it ready for the weekend ahead...🎪

Quick reminder that although we can take card payments on the Baa on Friday and Sunday we'll definitely also be taking cash and the majority of stalls will be cash only 🙂💷

As the A34 is closed you won't be able to nip out to the nearest cash point, so make sure you come prepared - we would hate you to run out 😉

🪩Look forward to seeing you tomorrow night 🪩

05/06/2024

🏃🏻 Races on Sunday from 3.15pm 🏃🏼‍♀️

🐏This year we're going one step further with the Sheep theme with our races taking us on a journey of the Life of a Sheep! 🐏

Birth - The Sack Race
Adolescence - Fancy Dress Race
Off to Work - Sprints
Coupling up - Three Legged Race
Herding - Team Challenge
Assisted Birth - The Tug of War!

No need to pre-register, just come along to the main arena just before 3.15 to get involved!

This will be followed by the traditional Partner Piggy Back Race, (or should that be Sheep Back?!) and then we'll get the stocks out...

03/06/2024

🪩 Almost time to party! 🪩

Join us on Friday for:

🎶 Fabulous live music from local band Mash and tunes from Local DJ Sam
🍻 Our very own Baa serving local beers from Renegade Brewery, cider, wine, soft drinks and of course Pimms!
🍕 Fresh Pizza available to purchase from Whitehorsebox Pizza
🍦Freshly made Cheese Platters also available, with Ice Cream for the kids (and adults!)

🎟Just £10 entry for adults (£3 for over 5-17yrs) - all proceeds go towards running the Sheep Fair next year with any profits coming straight back into the village - it's a win win!!

🍷With thanks to The Swan Hotel East Ilsley for organising the drinks licence - please be aware we will be checking ID for alcohol sales for anyone who is lucky to look young enough!

💳 We can now accept card payments at the bar but please do also bring cash for entry and in case of technical difficulties!! 💷

02/06/2024

Planning on entering the Dog Show next week? Here are the categories 👇🏻🐕

🏵Best Looking
🏵Best Veteran (8+)
🏵Prettiest Puppy (up to 18 months)
🏵Best Junior Handler
🏵Waggiest Tail
🏵Fastest Sit

Registration from 12.30 with Dog Show at 2.00pm kindly sponsored by Larkmead Vets 🏆

01/06/2024

This time next week the team will have cleared up after a fabulous Friday night and will be preparing for the big event!

Here's a quick preview of the main events on Sunday so you can make sure you don't miss anything...

12.00 - Fair Opens
12.15 - The Ilsleys Primary School Choir 🎤
12.30 - Dog Show Registration ✍🏻
12.30 - Pilates with Fiona Chaillier 🧘🏻‍♀️
1.00 - Ray Prior Falconry 🦅
2.00 - Dog Show 🐕
3.00 - Live Singing from Seb Von Wenden 🎶
3.15 - Sheep Themed Family Races 🐑
4.15 - Raffle Winners, Auction of Produce and the Stocks! 🎟

We've got local beers from Renegade Brewery along with a variety of other alcoholic and soft drinks, a BBQ with delicious Casey Fields Farm Shop at Vicars Game burgers and sausages, and fabulous street food from John The Greek as well as cakes and refreshments from the Tea Tent and of course, Ice Creams!

⭐️ Thank you so much as always for all of your support, and look forward to seeing you next Friday and Sunday! ⭐️

30/05/2024

A handy list of all the craft and produce categories for the competition - still plenty of time to get baking, crafting and creating! 🎨🍰🍎🍷🍯