The first Baldock Festival in 1982 was instigated by the Arts & Leisure Committee of North Herts District Council. After that one, we were told we were on our own, so if we wanted to do another Festival we would have to do all the organising etc.
With that challenge, a committee was formed and the second Baldock Festival took place in 1983. Some members of that committee thought we should have a completely new committee with fresh ideas so attempts were made to do this but with little success. For two years there was no Festival until in 1986 a new committee was formed and the Festival has run every year since then with another two-year break because of Covid restrictions and safeguarding measures.
Post-Covid the committee decided that the Baldock Festival should become formally registered as a community interest company (or CIC) which is a special form of a non-charitable limited company, which exists primarily to benefit a community or with a view to pursuing a social purpose, rather than to make a profit for shareholders.
The first few Festivals ran for just one week, increasing to two weeks over the years until it has now grown into a three-week Festival to allow all the events that various organisations wish to be included to be accommodated.
The idea of the Festival is to bring together people of the town and wider populations and offer a variety of events with the hope that there will be at least one or two that everyone will enjoy.
If you have ideas for an event, either as an individual or as a member of an organisation, please get in touch by contacting info@baldockfestival.org.uk. You may even want to join the committee!
