Once again, 18 years after the first one, the Annual Village Gala, Music and Beer Festival will take place over the late May Bank Holiday. It's the same tried and trusted format but with a few tweaks and updates to keep things fresh.

The aim is to bring people together and have some fun, whilst supporting the Blue Bell and village organisations. 

The long weekend opens with the Mega Quiz night organised by our own Quizmaster and protector of the people, Ian Coupe. You'll need to book your team of 6 with the pub in advance. 

Thursday is when the beer festival opens too, with about 30 Real Ales to choose from as well as lesser beverages. get it while it's fresh! Alex and Cinzia have made some changes and will be running two bars in the marquee so hopefully the queues for the bar on the Sunday will be shorter and faster moving.

Friday Night is Soul Night with the Motor City Vipers returning. They are a great 8 piece soul band and will get everyone on their feet dancing. It's free entry, as Alex generously pays for the band. Food will be available, as it will be throughout the weekend.

On Saturday there will be a Classic Car show- not as big as the August one perhaps and we hope to limit it to British Marques. Come along and see how many times you say (or hear) "my Dad had one of those..." .

Classics can just turn up on the day- I'm hoping to have a good display of Sprites and Midgets from local clubs in particular.

Saturday Night is of course Easton's Got Talent night and as EATS is still recovering from doing a panto last year we're reverting to the Talent Show format, and theming it around the Oscars. They may be a red carpet, there will be about 14 acts, and lots of laughs, some of them intentional. Entry is £5.00 adults, £3.00 under 16s. Takings go towards the cost of staging and lighting the whole event as well as supporting EATS. 

Sunday is when the village will be host to hundreds of visitors as well as locals who come to see the terrific line-up of bands that Alex has booked and paid for. The line-up is very impressive and some great quality bands come and enjoy the size of the venue and the professionalism of local heroes Lux Techinlcal, who kindly provide all the sound and light equipment. 

Monday is Fete Day, kicking off with Sarah Gardner's ever popular Dog Show from 11.00. Then we have the usual selection of stalls from village organisations, and a Bouncy Castle and Body Art for the kids. See below for a special competition organised by the Horticultural Society. Cake Donations are welcomed by the Friends of the Church, either direct to Felicity Stephenson on Sunday or on stall on the day. This year we've got a local Craft Market too- organised by Helen Tomblin, we're hoping for around 8 stalls fro village craft makers. So far 6 are confirmed- come and support your neighbour's craft enterprise. if you live in the village and have some crafts to sell, contact Helen by email tomblinh@yahoo.co.uk to book in; cost is £25 per stall. Shaun Sutton is organising the Bottle Stall and is looking for donations-email him at s.sutton403@btinternet.com

In the afternoon we will have the Welland School of Dance with the Maypole, the D"Ukes of Rutland playing, and Ian lawson and Aidan Davey are organising a mass "Big Bash". Bring along anything that makes a rhythmic noise (pots, pans, drums etc- we will have some big "drums" and containers available too) and take part on what we hope will be a hilarious mass participation musical event. It won't be peaceful. 

Before and during the event we will be selling Raffle Tickets with a £250 cash prize plus other kindly donated prizes- so far an MoT Voucher from Mark at Mill Vew, Hampers from Easton Village Stores and Sue Chappell,, and other goodies. This is the main fundraiser for village groups; please dig deep and support us if you can. Most of the events are free and this goes some way to raise money to keep local clubs going. We do also benefit from the generous support of Sponsors, notably Peter Mitchell (Farms), Richardson Estate Agents, and Sharmans Agriculture, who are also holding an Open Day on Saturday 25th.

Thanks in advance to everyone who lends a hand and especially those who have been coming to the Planning Meetings- the last one of which is on Monday 29th April.

I''ve probably forgotten to add something but I think that will suffice!

Tim Nicol