A Fantastic and Far Out Southmead Festival!

Thank you to everyone who volunteered at and attended this year’s Southmead Festival.  What a fantastic day we all had. The weather was a perfect mix of sun and cover, with a little refreshing shower at one point in the day.

This year the theme was the 1970s to celebrate when the Festival began in Southmead, and we were not disappointed by the costumes!  What a fantastic array of brilliant outfits from hippies, psychodelia, and mid 70s glitter.

Maybe it was simply 70s chill (man!), but it is really difficult to put a finger on why and how there was an extra special community vibe this year. It was a laid-back peaceful mix of community music, family activities, fantastic food, and the popular funfair and ice-creams.  Everyone seemed happy and full of neighbourly spirit.

There were some great conversations in the Southmead Annual Update tent, plenty of tea, cake, and chat in the Senior’s and Volunteer tents, and a whole host of fine festival food from all the top-notch sellers. Thank you to St Monica Trust for contributing funds to the Senior’s tent this year.

Little ones enjoyed a gentle trot on the donkeys and got to know a few cuddly creatures in the petting zoo. There were free goes on inflatable castles and games to join in with. Some families just sat back and soaked up the atmosphere, licked ice-creams, and smiled in the sun – so lovely to see.

On the Community Performance stage the Greenway Singers belted out 1970s classics, the ukulele band played lovely tunes, Southmead’s Esme Doll turned out a fabulous lip-sync show, Dan Ratchet added lyrics about Southmead to his reggae songs (he went to Greenway School back in the day!), our Bill pumped out musical magic on his keyboard, and there was fabulous dancing from DWild, Bristol4Tibet, and children from The Ranch who performed their St Paul’s Carnival routine.

A now Festival favourite is the monthly Greenway Market in the Main Hall, and this was buzzing with stall holders selling lots of beautiful locally made wares. And a first for the Festival this year was the monthly Southmead Repair Café where residents can bring the broken items they would like fixed and to use again. Thank you to all Market and Repair Café Volunteers – remember they are all at Greenway every month putting on these great events so do check out our What’s On for the next dates.

We have been publishing our pics on Facebook so do take a look HERE. Importantly we would love to hear what you have to say about this year’s festival. Do email: info@southmead.org to let us know what you liked, what you would like to see next time, and anything you think could be improved.

We cannot wait to begin planning the Festival for 2026, so do send your ideas as soon as you can and keep an eye out for next year’s date.

Until then – a 1970s ‘peace and love’ to you all.