On a chilly January evening, it was a pleasure to be invited along to meet the Stone Festival Committee to find out more about their plans for the 2022 Stone Festival, which returns in physical form this June.
Firstly, we wanted to learn more about the team that organises and executes the family fun festival across Stone in June each year.
Tim Joyce, Vice Chairman of the Stone Festival Committee, told A Little Bit of Stone:
“Stone Festival is the longest-running local festival, run by a team of volunteers from across the Stone community, including many involved with organisations that people will be familiar with, such as Stone Rotary, Stone Lions and Stone Inner Wheel.
People often think that the Stone Festival is run by Stone Town Council or Stafford Borough Council. On the contrary, it’s entirely the work of the Stone Festival Committee and volunteers who put together the programme of events and put on the festival for everyone in the town.
Stone Festival has been a part of Stone’s history for more than 50 years and has always had the local community at its heart. The Stone Festival aims to put on an event that families and individuals can get involved with and come along and have a good time. We pride ourselves in dispersing money raised to many charitable groups and organisations working across our town.”
Back to plans for 2022, we wanted to hear more about the events that are on the calendar; Alex Godon, who organises the popular Carnival Parade, told us:
“As we ease back into physical outdoor events, we’ve taken a reserved approach to what we have put on the 2022 programme. Of course, the incredibly popular Festival Parade (more on that later) and Carnival, the jewel in the festival’s crown, will once again be centre stage and we will have a week-long programme of events with a number of events scheduled to run during the weeks before the festival itself.
To bring the entire programme together, we could really do with more volunteers and would ask anyone who has some time to get in touch with us. (editor: contact details at the end of the article) ”
Speaking of the Carnival Parade, Alex told us more for those who’d like to take part:
“The Stone Festival Parade is a procession of Walking and Marching groups, together with Vehicles and Floats. Often these are groups, organisations or businesses from across the town.
This year the Parade will be taking place on Saturday 18th June. It starts from the Hitachi Energy (previously ABB) car park before heading down Longton Road, Christchurch Way, Stafford Street and then onto Westbridge Park, where the Parade joins the funfair and charitable and commercial stalls.
The Parade is an excellent opportunity to have fun and make Stone stand out in the local area, and best of all it is free to get involved. If people would like to join in, email me on parade@stonefestival.co.uk”
Finally, Sandie McQueen told me about the Stone Festival Committee and how people could get involved.
“The Stone Festival is a real team effort; we have individuals and organisations who host and organise events with our support. From Lymestone Brewery to Stone Ramblers, it’s wonderful to see organisations, individuals and businesses offering to host events and put on something special for the town.
The Stone Festival Committee always welcomes new members who would like to support and influence this well-established event.
If you would like to help provide an exciting week of events for your local community, please feel free to contact us on concessions@stonefestival.co.uk to discuss what time, skills, general support and knowledge you can offer.”
If you’d like to read more about the Stone Festival head to their website at StoneFestival.co.uk or head on over to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stonefestivalandcarnival
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