How to found a fundraising festival

SIXTY years ago, the Vicar of St Michael and All Angels, Bedford Park, in London, had an idea. The roof needed fixing, the realm was run down, and the council in Chiswick was pulling down wonderful Victorian houses, which were out of fashion within the “Swinging Sixties”.

He founded a festival — to have fun the humanities, raise money for repairs to the church, and “foster a spirit of friendliness and community”. With support from parishioners and the Bedford Park Society (a heritage group with Sir John Betjeman as its patron), the Bedford Park Festival was launched the next yr (bedfordparkfestival.org).

The first festival programme carried a message from the Bishop of London which rings as true today because it did then: “As London grows larger and greater, it becomes increasingly vital that there needs to be an actual sense of community in the assorted areas. To foster such a spirit in Bedford Park is the thing of this Festival and I hope that it’ll be supported by all who live in the realm.

“Since it’s one in all the tasks of the church to be a centre of community I hope, too, that your parish church of St Michael and All Angels shall be increasingly at the guts of the community.”

Sixty years on, the Bishop’s wish has been greater than fulfilled. The festival is the centrepiece of St Michael’s arts and community outreach. While the church is rightly seen as a centre of community, it must also be recognised as a centre of “the community economy”.

NEXT month, our Green Days Fête and Craft Fair, conveniently near Turnham Green Tube station, will bring together families, performers, businesses, schools, and charities in a weekend of fun, friendship, . . . and spending.

Bedford Park FestivalSunday-morning mass on the green

Despite the economic situation (which has had an impact in Chiswick because it has in all places else), businesses are queuing up for a spot on the Green, to interact with local people, promote their wares, and be seen to assist to fund our festival charities. More than 50 are sponsoring stalls and humanities events, many as “Diamond partners”, who donate greater than £1000 in money, goods, or services.

Three Diamond partners have returned after a yr or two, because they recognise the facility and importance of “community”: the estate agent Knight Frank; Chiswick’s Sipsmith distillery; and Porsche West London, which can display its latest electric Cayenne model in our electric-vehicle zone. The others could be seen on our Partners page, and shall be highlighted with thank-yous in social-media and other publicity (bedfordparkfestival.org).

There is a waiting list for the Craft Fair, which can feature 20 local artists, jewellers, and textile and wood staff. The beer tent and barbecue, supplied by a pub and a butcher’s shop, will do a roaring trade, as will the funfair, refreshment tent, and stalls selling books, plants, and bric-a-brac. About 40 restaurants will donate a meal for 2 for the win-a-meal raffle. On the Sunday, we open the stalls to local charities to advertise their causes, sell raffle tickets, and recruit volunteers.

After the fête, a fortnight of arts events will include the violinist Braimah Kanneh-Mason and other top young musicians, who will perform within the church and at workshops for schools, under our programme “Widening access to great live music in Chiswick”, which is funded by Pladis (UK&I), the manufacturer of McVitie’s biscuits, which relies in Chiswick Park.

THIS has not happened overnight. This month, our Vicar, the Revd Kevin Morris, celebrates 30 years within the parish; just like the festival’s founder, the Revd Jack Jenner, he’s a powerful believer in the humanities as a force for community outreach. We have been constructing fruitful partnerships with businesses and humanities groups throughout this time.

For its Millennium project, St Michael and All Angels restored its dilapidated Victorian parish hall as a community centre fit for the twenty first century, installing an upstairs floor to double its size. It was an enormous financial risk, because we didn’t get the Heritage Lottery grant that we had hoped for, and had to lift all the cash from the community. That was stressful: it took several years of fund-raising events — and faith.

But it has had a positive impact on the Chiswick economy. The construction work was handled by local architects, builders, and craftspeople, and the hall soon generated latest income — from a long-term partnership with schools, and from talks, live shows, dance classes, and dozens of kids’s parties.

Bedford Park FestivalPeter Clarke and Tom Greeves were inspired to design a Christmas card with an illustration, The Battle of Bedford Park (after the battle of Turnham Green fought in the course of the Civil War), depicting Betjeman and others defending Bedford Park with umbrellas and sticks. The original is kept by the Victorian Society at 1 Priory Gardens, London W4

It re-energised the Bedford Park Festival, allowing us to carry more — and more ambitious — arts events, raising extra money for the church and its charities through ticket sales and sponsorship. Once there was a more modern and welcoming hall, choirs and orchestras flocked to perform within the church. We now have a Heritage Conservation Fund to assist pay for maintenance (smaaa.org.uk/heritage-conservation-fund).

Together, the hall and church gave us the space to launch the Chiswick Book Festival, which also gives its profits to charities and the church; in 17 years, it has donated greater than £150,000. The church has formed helpful venue partnerships with Chiswick House and Gardens, the Tabard Theatre, and the Chiswick Cinema, sharing profits, audiences, and promotion.

We found space for a gaggle to launch a Cookbook Festival; now they run the one specialist cheese market within the UK — one in all 4 monthly Sunday markets which have helped to show Chiswick right into a weekend destination all year long.

IT IS a far cry from the Fifties and ’60s, when Chiswick — and Bedford Park specifically — had fallen on hard times, to the extent that bus conductors used to call out “Poverty Park” on reaching the church. Once a trendy Arts and Crafts garden suburb, with wonderful houses designed by architects comparable to Norman Shaw and E. J. May, most of the buildings had been poorly divided into flats and bedsits, resulting in a period of decay. Some of the most important houses had been demolished to make way for contemporary blocks of flats.

Sir John Betjeman and the Bedford Park Society fought the developers for five years, without success. The turning point was the primary Bedford Park Festival, when the Society organised an exhibition within the vicarage to focus on the history, art, and architecture of Bedford Park, and the risks that it faced.

One visitor was a Ministry of Housing and Local Government inspector, Arthur Grogan, who was so impressed that he beneficial the Grade II listing of 356 houses and other buildings, including the Tabard Inn, St Michael and All Angels, and its parish hall. It was one in all the good heritage campaigns of the twentieth century, and the “Exhibition that Saved Bedford Park”, because it has turn out to be known (bedfordpark.org.uk), laid the foundations of the realm’s current prosperity (and Porsches).

“Green Days weekend” became the highlight of the “village” yr, commonly opened by the realm’s celebrities, who include their families to enjoy their parish-church fête. In 1981, Hayley Mills launched the buy-a-tile campaign to repair the church. For the sixtieth festival, Sophie Ellis-Bextor will open the fête — which could also be one more reason that local businesses are keen to be seen and participate.

For 25 years, we have now also made it really “green”, recycling all of the waste and inspiring people to vary their transport habits through our Cycle Zone and Electric Vehicle Zone.

FIVE years ago, a report commissioned by the Association of English Cathedrals said that the 42 Anglican cathedrals in England contributed £235 million to their local economies, as drivers for cultural tourism; as heritage sites, commissioning work from artisans; and as venues hosting art exhibitions, live shows, and film and tv shoots.

On a smaller scale, parish churches can have the same effect by profiting from their buildings and forming mutually helpful partnerships with businesses, schools, arts groups, and charities. This summer, tons of of church fêtes will bring people together in fun and friendship, raising money for good causes. The impact may very well be multiplied, with advantages for all, if more churches capitalised on their place at the guts of “the community economy”.

Torin Douglas is a author and public speaker. He was for twenty-four years the BBC’s media correspondent, and, in 2013, was awarded the MBE for services to the community in Chiswick. He is director of the Chiswick Book Festival.

What’s needed:

• Welcoming modernised spaces, outdoors and indoors
• Plenty of volunteers, some with arts and business connections
• Good website, finance, and booking systems
• Good PR support and social media
• Commitment and labor
• Vision, direction, confidence — and faith