Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival to Close

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A statement from the Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival Committee:

“It is with great sadness that we, the Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival organising committee, must confirm that the 2023 event held this July will be the last ever event for us. The event planned for 2024 has unfortunately been cancelled.

The festival grew from very small acorns planted in our village in 2012 and has, since then, grown to become among the very finest of events found anywhere in the UK. This is a significant feat for an event organised entirely by local volunteers, who simply wanted to celebrate the incredible beauty of Woodhall Spa and commemorate its proud heritage.

Sadly, operating costs have now simply become too high for us to carry on. As our free event has become more and more popular year-on-year, the costs of keeping so many people safe, secure, well-served with the right infrastructure, like traffic management, medical cover and insurances, and entertained with the kind of wide range of performances and re-enactments any crowd deserves, have risen very sharply. Those costs also show no signs of easing in future years, in fact they are likely to increase even more. At the same time our income and reserves have been slowly eroded by external factors. As a team of volunteers, we have taken a hard and considered look at the viability of the festival, and it is with very heavy hearts that we now have no choice but to thank everyone who has supported us in any way since 2012 and say a fond goodbye.

We remain very proud of all we achieved and all we have contributed to our home village. The joy of seeing so many people enjoy the fruits of our labour was always thrilling and the sights and songs will live long in our hearts, as we hope they do in yours.

This news will be sad for many of you to read but we hope you understand that this has been a very tough decision to come to, but we believe it is the right one. No one is more upset about this need to close than our team, who work hard year-round on top of their work and family commitments out of sheer love and pride in this event and seeing your joy.

As we work to wind down the festival, we will be in touch with anyone directly affected (e.g. those enrolled in the On The Ration Lottery). Please bear with us while we work through the logistics. It will take some time for us to wind everything up behind the scenes, but in the meantime, we’ll be working on seeing out our responsibilities to local good causes and honouring lottery vouchers, for example.

Before we say farewell, we must thank all the local residents, businesses, sponsors, entertainers, reenactors, partners and supporters we have worked with in recent years for all their talents and contributions, without which the now famous festival would not be the success it became. Enormous thanks also go to every single person who has attended the festival; it has been a pleasure to welcome you to Woodhall Spa. We will miss you all.

Thank you for the memories. Goodbye.”

Woodhall Spa 1940s Festival

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