VILLAGE FETE 2026
On Saturday we returned to the village where we used to live, to attend the annual village fete which always takes place on the last Saturday in June. After the extreme heat of the previous days, the morning began slightly overcast and there was a tiny bit of rain, after which the sun returned. There was a nice fresh breeze and everyone was a lot more comfortable on what turned out to be a gorgeous summer day.
The fete was even better this year! They seem to have acquired a collection of gazebos to cover the stalls, and they had flags and bunting and everything looked so bright and festive in the sunlight!
Here’s a general view on our arrival.
We saw lots of people we knew from our time there, although sadly many of them have either died or moved away since we left. There is an influx of new blood, who are fortunately fully engaged with village life! The fete is always a great occasion.
Annie’s white elephants
Annie’s famous white elephant stall always takes up more room than anyone else’s stall! I always make a bee-line for it. It’s like a charity shop on steroids. Their garage is apparently full of stuff every year, collected in readiness for the fete, and storing stuff that hasn’t sold. I usually find old jewellery that I can take apart and use in art projects. You never know what treasures you are going to find among the stuff that people have donated, which they no longer want!
Events and activities
Jane always runs the dog show, which always attracts a lot of competitors and audience! This year we were rather amused to hear that a “failed police dog” had won a runner-up prize!
There was a kiddies’ section with fun little games for them to play, like throwing hoops, and my favourite was the “Hook a Duck”!
This little girl managed to hook two at once!
The Duvet Challenge was a new one – people competed to see how quickly they could put a cover on a duvet – a double duvet for adults and a single one for children!
The rodeo bull and the slide.
I didn’t see anyone brave enough to try the rodeo bull, despite the padding all around it! There was plenty of activity on the blow-up slide, though.
Food and drink
Ice creams and snacks and drinks available – at one point my hubby sought me out armed with a Pimm’s! Lovely and refreshing on a hot day.
The tea tent.
The Fire Brigade
The firemen were there with one of their fire engines, showing off the various pieces of equipment they have. I had no idea there were so many controls on the end of the hose – you could adjust it to suit the type and extent of the fire. All the lads were very friendly and enjoyed showing everything, and the kids had a lovely time climbing all over the engine!
The hobby horse gymkhana
This was the final event of the day and was great fun! There was a 7-and-under class and an adult class, and I’m not sure which was the most amusing!
Here are the jumps being set up.
The height was set low for the little ones, and raised quite high for the grown-ups – ladies gathering their sun-dresses around their legs to make the great leap! There was even a water jump… Nobody fell in. (Shame…)
People had made their own hobby horses but most people didn’t actually ride them around the course. One tiny little boy whose legs were far too short to jump over anything, made a valiant attempt, holding his mum’s hand, and demolishing every jump with his hobby horse! He got a round of applause at each jump!
As the adults were starting, a great wail went up from one lady whose horse’s head had fallen off, and she cried out, “All the stuffing’s coming out!” Brilliant.
Looking back
They’ve always had fun activities, and in the past would often have a performer to entertain everyone. The Desmond Tutus were a great favourite – two guys called Desmond (supposedly!) dressed in tutus and doing trick-cycling and juggling.
One of the retired farmers living in the village (now sadly no longer with us – he was such a lovely man) had the “Sheep Drop.” He had a sheep in a pen, and the ground was marked out in squares. You chose a numbered square and paid your fee, and the winner was the person whose square had the sheep do a poo in it!!!
My hubby ran an aeroplane on a string between two tall poles and you had to pull the string to release the catch and try and aim your bomb on what was underneath! The kids loved that one. One year he was also the “Stop me and buy one” man, selling ice creams!
Last year I bought a beautiful stoneware bowl from a local potter who’d set up her stall. She wasn’t here this year.
My fete haul
I didn’t buy so much this year – just some jewellery from Annie’s, and also a new bag from a sewing lady who lives in the village.
I am going to add a removable long handle onto this bag. It has more pockets than my current one, and is more substantial. I love the sewing themed fabric!
Jewellery haul
Several necklaces, and a box of beads and oddments.
The bead box had lots of useful stuff in it, not least plenty of beads with quite large holes. A lot of the beads in my quite extensive collection have rather small holes, which doesn’t always make them very useful for junk journals, unless I’m prepared to put in the time and work to thread them on wire and make loops on the ends. There were also quite a few lobster clasps to add to the ones I took off the necklaces. There are always useful bits and pieces to go into my jewellery findings box after a trip like this. In addition, I’ve got another small plastic storage box!
I took all the necklaces apart. Most of the necklaces were strung on nylon and had to be cut in order to remove the beads. The orange one consisted of short lengths of chain connecting the wired beads with jump rings. I made lots of separate dangles from this. Like the white metal butterfly necklace, this took some time to demolish as I had to open each jump ring. I closed them again in readiness for attaching to something else. I detached the butterflies completely, and left the jump rings on the short lengths of chain, ready to attach some sort of charm or dangle when I need to.
In this box are the detached parts from a couple of extra necklaces as well, from my last charity shop haul, which I hadn’t got around to taking apart.
Here is a sample of dangles from the above.
The white metal butterflies.
Plenty of material to play with here!
Altogether a great day out, with our Dartington sketching session in the morning, and a delicious meal out at the Sea Trout before going on to the fete.
