Save Bedford River Festival

25/08/2023

Definitely back on!

The Bedford River Festival will return on the 20th & 21st July 2024.

Sponsorship opportunities are available if you would like to align your business with the Festival's established brand values of community, inclusion, creativity, diversity and celebration.

For more information please contact the team at [email protected]

23/08/2023

BBC3CR right now, new developments!

23/08/2023

I wonder what else there is to it?

Please tell me they actually managed to get hold of the mayor this time? 😉🙄😂

22/08/2023

As stated in a previous post I wrote to the Mayor to seek a meeting, following the recent U turn on replacing our wonderful River Festival with a smaller annual family festival, to seek assurances that any changes to the festival will only follow proper public consultation.

I have now received the following particularly disappointing response from Mayor Tom Wootton's office:

"Thank you for your email to The Mayor. Bedford Borough Council is working hard and preparing for the 2024 event for the enjoyment of all attendees. Mayor Wootton has asked me to pass on that he appreciates your help and guidance and he will be in touch should he need your help."

The Mayor's office has completely ignored my request for a meeting about "the event" or to give it its proper name the River Festival... The lack of consultation with Councillors, myself or the public continues to be a theme of the current Mayor's administration and leaves me with real worry regarding future plans for the River Festival. We need a commitment from the Mayor that any changes will involve a public consultation.

My offer to meet with the Mayor remains open and I hope that Tom Wootton will take a more open approach going forward with elected representatives and with residents.

21/08/2023

Although Mayor Tom Wootton quickly u turned on his baffling decision to replace Bedford’s River Festival with a smaller annual family festival following uproar from residents and local businesses, by stating there will be a River Festival in 2024 as planned, I am left with grave concerns if this is an example of how the new Conservative administration makes decisions without consultation.

Even councillors didn’t know, let alone Bedford residents.

I have written asking to meet with him and Councillor Sarah Gallagher, Portfolio Holder for Leisure and Culture, to seek assurances that any changes to the festival will only follow proper consultation and indeed that future decisions of this significance will not be made in a similar fashion.

I am also keen to better understand what he means by stating that the River Festival is not ‘family focussed’.

I am concerned that this bizarre decision has been the new Mayor’s priority, as early on as he is in the role, and hope to meet with him at his earliest convenience to discuss this matter further.

Update: I have received correspondence from Cllr Gallagher to state that this issue would fall outside of her portfolio and it would be Deputy Mayor Jim Weir that would hold responsibility alongside the Mayor. Though of course I would hope that the whole executive would share my concern at recent developments.

20/08/2023

I met with Mayor Tom today to discuss the River Festival and how important it is to Bedfordians, after receiving a number of calls expressing both sides of the argument regarding the River Festival.

After a long discussion he has agreed that he will re-examine it and that the River Festival will go ahead Bedford Independent

20/08/2023

Thank goodness for that!🥰

Let's continue to make the festival a really good one and ensure the future is secure for the event. Many more years to come hopefully 🙏

Thanks so much to everyone who has shown their support by following this page, and also for signing the petition. People of Bedford have spoken and have been heard!

https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/breaking-news-controversial-river-festival-changes-to-be-scrapped/?fbclid=IwAR0GFEh26QdG3XLrXvSZTAJt14RRf8tGcwNAgPsCEqSxIxOHOBCOPMB_pmI

Mayor Tom Wotton has said proposed river festival changes revealed in the Bedford Independent on Friday (18 August), which...

19/08/2023

A great video I found on Youtube, capturing the atmosphere of the festival back in 2022 😀

We can't let them take away this event, it is so popular!

The Bedford River Festival is a free festival held biennially in Bedford, England on the banks of the River Great Ouse. The event includes dragon boat and ra...

19/08/2023

An official statement from Bedford Borough Liberal Democrats and previous mayor, Dave Hodgson has been made 👇

19/08/2023

Petition update!

We are now at 1142 people who have signed the petition, thank you so much!

358 signatures are needed, let’s get there by the end of the day?

19/08/2023

For those wanting to write to Tom Wooton (Mayor), you can do so by emailing [email protected]

Make sure you copy in your ward councillor as well

https://councillorsupport.bedford.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx

Brace yourself Tom, many emails coming your way!

People of Bedford need to be listened to!!

Thank you Cllr Lucy Bywater - Castle Ward, Bedford - Green Party for sharing the link and contact email with us!

19/08/2023

Mohammad Yasin MP has posted on his page with the following statement.

19/08/2023

Thank you to the person who shared this 2022 article under one of the posts on the We Are Bedford facebook group:

Another important reason why we need the river festival, it boosts the local economy!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-62238168?fbclid=IwAR0X0zHblG2fyaO9NRtboa9CvMZlNVA9jPJ3cySKqD7zNnIOtsYDXVVV-S8

The two-day event, returning after a four-year break, is great for the town, business owners say.

19/08/2023

Why do we need the Bedford River Festival, and why should it continue?

Please to contribute your thoughts to this thread (on the original post or this one is fine!)

Let's fill this with a lot of positive comments!

19/08/2023

Spent some time catching up on a discussion that took place on BBC Three Counties Radio with Roberto Perrone yesterday afternoon on his show, after being made aware that the river festival was spoken about.

Roberto Perrone spoke to Paul Hutchison from Bedford Independent and then later on, got one of the local councilors in Bedford on air to challenge him about why the river festival has to go.

I must admit, Roberto did a fantastic job challenging councillor Jim Weir (definitely take a listen towards the end of show). Absolutely ridiculous that Jim kept on about changing the river festival to emphasise a more family friendly event.

But doing this, it excludes everyone else. The river festival is for everyone and is already family friendly. Changing to organising a family specific event will mean that others will not be included. 😡

Audio won't be available for long, so take a listen while you can!

(Listen from 1:19:25, and then at points until the end of the show) https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0g3818x

This is a developing piece of information, so there should be a lot more discussion and focus on this on the radio next week.

I would definitely reccommend contacting BBC 3CR and other local media with your thoughts. Let's make this a real media focus over the coming days and weeks!

Roberto Perrone brings you local news, sport, weather, travel and your views.

18/08/2023

Did you know, there is a tool that you can use to write to councillors and MP's

Might be a good idea to write to them, to hopefully gain their support!

WriteToThem is a website which provides an easy way to contact MPs, councillors and other elected representatives.

18/08/2023

Bedford River Festival goes back a long way, and has a lot of history:

Bedford River Festival was founded in 1978 to celebrate the completion of a navigable route, by water, between Bedford and The Wash. [1] Originally it was held annually during the late May bank holiday but for many years has been biennial and held over either the second or third weekend in July.

18/08/2023

We want to save our River Festival, so why?

Leave your positive comments below as to good reasons why we need a river festival in Bedford and why it should continue!

18/08/2023

Amazing to see the response from the Bedford community so far!

A petition has been set up (thanks to the amazing Andy Craigen!), so please do sign and share!

Don't change Bedford River Festival

18/08/2023

For reference, here is the article that was published through the Bedford Independent today , outlining the plans for the replacement of the Bedford River Festival :

The Bedford Independent has learned of plans to replace the Bedford River Festival with an annual summer 'family festival' that organisers...

18/08/2023

Hi all

Just setting up this page so those who are against the replacement of the Bedford River Festival, can all come together and make their voices heard!

Not sure how big of a campaign this will be, and anyone who can offer support in any way specific, do let me know by messaging this page! All support is greatly appreciated!

Together we can save our town's biggest event!

P.S, if anyone has any really great photos of the River Festival, please do send them across to this page! As a new page, everything is looking rather blank currently, but hopefully within a few days , we can have something visual to identify the page

Thanks :)