It’s always sunny at Elder Stubbs

The Restore family – staff, members and volunteers – were all decked in sunny yellow at our annual Elder Stubbs Festival on August 17th! Our Festival theme, ‘mellow yellow,’ flowed freely across the beautiful allotments site, with huge sunflowers, a Yellow Brick Road created by our members, banners, bunting, painted faces and fancy-dress costumes.

The sun shone for most of the day, and families, neighbours and friends poured in through the entrances on Rymers Lane throughout the afternoon. The crowds were wowed by the artists, who took their entertainment around the site, including: the beats of Sol Samba, the dynamic Oxford Ukelele Band and the vibrant red Horns of Plenty. There were plenty of refreshments on hand, with a very busy ice cream van, an incredible Restore tea and cake stall, a barbecue – run by some of the members from our Elder Stubbs Recovery Project – and mouth-watering stalls offering foods from round the world. As in previous years, we had an impressive range of local stalls, selling tempting goods, from palm oil free chocolate to collectable CDs and gorgeous African tunics. Add to this, loads of family-friendly games, crafts and activities to try – literally something for everyone!

As always at Elder Stubbs, a highlight of the day was definitely the live music, with an eclectic line-up of bands from Moogieman & the Masochists on the electric stage to Sandy Lenny on the Mellow Yellow Reggae stage, and plenty more in-between. The children flocked to the pony rides, the Story Museum’s pumpkin tent and, for the first time this year, the Scouts climbing wall. In the Restore stalls area, we were having chats about how to get involved in the work we do through volunteering and about all things mental health in general. Of course there was also the chance to win a Days Out trip or experience in our Elder Stubbs raffle – and tickets sold fast.

We want to say a huge thank you to everyone who came along and got involved at our Elder Stubbs Festival this year – we genuinely couldn’t do it without you!

We are especially grateful to all our volunteers and members, who give their time and energy every year, to make this such a welcoming, unique community event. We are delighted to have raised just under £9,500 from the event, which will help to enable us to continue to support local people with mental health conditions to recover and lead more fulfilled lives.

And bring on Elder Stubbs Festival, 15^th August 2020, where we’ll be going green… you won’t want to miss it!