H
enfield’s newest music, food, arts and family festival - FieldFest 2017 - will kick-start your summer on Saturday 8 July at St Peter’s Primary School. Organised by the PTA and replacing the traditional school summer fete, it’s shaping up to be an exciting family event with a real summer festival vibe! The final line-up is still to be finalised but we can give you just a few of the great acts who will be performing during four hours of fantastic entertainment. The live music will kick off at 5pm with the lead singer and guitarist Brían McNamara from Brighton band Warsaw Radio who will perform some covers to get the party started. Henfield band Skimming Stones formed way back in December 2016 when five 11-year old boys (Conall Williams, Freddie Crawley, Asmus Minchell, Samual Hilton and Oliver MacKinnon) started jamming in their parent’s houses. Covering songs that they have found on dusty vinyl collections, they play an eclectic mix, from 60’s rock-n-roll to 90’s indie with a bit of 80s punk thrown in for good measure. Black Pudding are an eight-piece local funk band whose influences include Curtis Mayfield, Kool & the Gang and Stevie Wonder. They have played Henfield pubs several times and so many villagers will be familiar with their cool funk and soul covers. There is still some availability on the line-up so the organisers are keen to hear from any budding Ed Sheeran’s / Adele’s who would like to take part. As well as music, there will be plenty of other fun activities. Kids workshops will include street dance, maypole dancing, yoga, drumming and
bush craft and there will also be a bouncy castle. There will be lots of arts & crafts festival stalls such as face painting, headdress-making amongst other activities. Henfield Holistics will also be on hand offering mini head and shoulder massages. No festival would be complete without lots of delicious food and drink options and these will include street food stalls, a bar, ice cream and candy floss – more than enough to keep everyone’s appetite sated throughout the afternoon and evening! FieldFest 2017 is just one of the many fundraising events that the hard-working PTA put on throughout the year in order to raise much-needed funds for the school. And with the ongoing and well-documented issues with school funding in West Sussex, never has their work been so important. With events such as the hugely popular village bonfire night, school discos, parents quiz night, Christmas fairs and Easter fiestas, the PTA raises money to pay for a range of things from playground refurbishment and educational school trips to essential arts and crafts materials. A recent major project that they have funded is a complete refurbishment of the ICT suite (or computer room!) including new IT equipment, furniture and decoration. So come on down to St Peters School on Saturday 8 July and join in the festival fun whilst helping to support our brilliant village school! Sarah Butler