any more for any more?

We're very pleased to now confirm that the wonderful Angus & Julia Stone will be also be playing at our fete on the Sunday. If you aren't familiar with either Angus or Julia (brother and sister) then have a little look at the below video.

I've got them on my ipod. They're very good.

flea for all

A fete wouldn’t be a fete without a circus of some kind and this year we have Professor Malcolm Jephcotts coming along with his very own flea circus. It’s a family heirloom, passed down from his grandfather to his dad, and consists of some extremely talented fleas.

There’s Bruno, who can lift a 2p coin, 70 times his own weight, Trixy who works her magic on the miniature trapeze and special guest star, Fleavel Knievel, who likes being fired out a cannon. We’re locating the dog agility arena in a different part of the park to avoid any walkabout fleas on the day, so make sure you pop along to see Bruno in action and don’t forget to bring your specs

now interviewing

We had our first village fete advert in London's Metro newspaper this morning. It was next to an advert for the Biggin Hill International Air Fair. We didn't get grumpy though, we're both on different weekends so no conflict of interest. That old bi-wing plane looks really good as well.

yes, no or maybe?

Along with this fete blog, website and flickr group we've just set up a new FaceBook event page for this years fete (you'll need to be logged into FaceBook to see it).

If you're one of the FaceBook fanatics out there it would be lovely if you could pop over and let us know if you'll be coming to this years fete but clicking 'yes, no or maybe' RSVP bit on the right hand side of the page. Then if you fancy it invite your favorite FaceBook friends along too.

We'll be trying to keep the page up to date with all the latest fete news and stuff over the next few months. Then we'll stick all our pictures and films on it after the weekend. And invite you to do the same.

some musical highlights from this year's fete

some musical highlights from this years fete

Here's a very quick run down of some of the great music acts we've booked in over the weekend so far (and a nice picture of a duck listening to music)...

It's an eclectic collection as ever.

James Taylor Quartet:

Imelda May
Faireys Band (see them in action at last year's fete here)
The Boy Least Likely To
Jive Aces
Josie Jo
Son of Dave :

Peter & The Wolf
Wallis Bird
James Yuill:

Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Cut A Shine:

Christian Prommer's Drumlesson
The Boy Least Likely To
Ukulele Orchestra of GB:

James Carrington
Imelda May
Dynamos Rhythm Aces
Josie Jo
Earl Okin:

Findlay Brown
Wallis Bird
Prints Of Whales
Adam Callan's Sweet Memory Sounds
Dynamos Rhythm Aces:

Cut A Shine
Cosmic Sausages

Still lots more to be confirmed.

we're back like burt bacharach

It's time to dust off the bunting and straw hats again and start getting ready for the innocent village fete 2008. We've booked up our same little corner of Regent's Park, London for the weekend of Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd of August this summer. The innocent village fete is back.

And so are our friends from last year Faireys Band (we had to have them back after this)

and the marvelous Earl Okin.

Amongst many, many other musical and fete like highlights. Watch this space as they say.

as if it were yesterday

We have to apologise that it's taken us so long to upload a film about our village fete this summer. Its been quite a while since the fete, it's got very cold between then and now for example.

But watching the highlights from our weekend in Regent's Park back in August has managed to warm us all up a bit this morning. It feels like it was only yesterday.

I'm going to go and buy an ice pop.

(The music is by The William Fairey Band incase you are wondering. They also played at our fete on Saturday to a raptuous reception).

and the winners of the fete flickr competition are...

The results are in and after a hotly contested vote we now have the 3 winners of our village fete flickr competition. We give you:

The best picture of bunting 2007

By Little Teabag.

Best fete game picture 2007

By Richard S.

And the best overall fete picture 2007

By Pirate Internet.

We'll be in direct contact with all 3 winners via flickr mail very soon. Congratulations to all of you on your imminent year's supply of smoothies. Don't drink it all at once.

every loser wins

It's been over ten long years since Wicksy first sat down at a piano and tinkered out 'Every Loser Wins' (they had amazing acoustics in the Queen Vic back then). Well this week we learnt the hard way the true poignancy of Wicksy's words.

Do you remember our attempt to break the world record for the longest bunting in the world at our village fete in Regent's Park? We failed. We didn't quite make it. The current record is still held by Wendy Hughes, helped by 6,000 Buckinghamshire school children.

It's taken us a while to measure up all the different bits of bunting but the final total came to 0.455 miles, 771.72 metres short of the record unfortuanetly.

But as Wicksy sang, every loser does indeed win and we have also won in many ways...

You sent us so much beautifully hand made bunting we felt truely in awe of your creativity and dedication.

We got to hang out with the Girl Guides for a weekend as they helped us to organise our attempt.

It got us all together for a lunch time of bunting making at fruit towers and cheered the office up with the tangles we put up afterwards (I bet the Central Office of Information has never looked like this on a random Wednesday in July).

And we all had a lovely couple of days out in the park.

We're sorry that we failed, you can't win them all though as they say. We are humble in our failure but would like to thank every single one of you who helped or donated bunting to the attempt.

Just watch this space next year, we're determined to get in that book now.

(Oh and if you fancy getting yourself one of those ghetto blasters that were all the rage in Albert Square in 1986 then have a look here).

make someone's year

You probably remember that we started a village fete flickr group a while ago with a prize of a year's supply of smoothies to the best photo in each of the 3 categories. Well the time has come to decide on the 3 winners, the only problem being we can't decide.

So we're hoping you can help us by visiting our voting page and selecting your favourite photos from our shortlist. We'll then announce the winners in our family newsletter on Wednesday 19th September (you can join our family here if you aren't already a member). Voting will close at midnight on Sunday September 16th.

Go vote.