Lowedges Festival: Lottery hope for future of Greenhill Park festival with events idea for this summer

Stephen Rich, the secretary of the Lowedges Community Festival Group who has taken a major organising role for nearly 20 years, says there will not be a Lowedges Festival this year after he made the decision to go into semi-retirement.

Today he said there are hopes that three, small events may be held on the same day in August instead in nearby community venues, offering activities, local information and a way to involve more people in bringing the main festival back next year.

The Lowedges Festival, which takes place at Greenhill Park, traditionally attracts as many as 15,000 visitors every year during August, but a lack of manpower to put it together has put it on hold this year, he said.

But he added a lottery application was now in the pipeline, with the hope of creating events at Lowedges community centre, The Lowedges Tenants and Residents Association base, and St Michael’s Church.

He said all three venues are close to one another, and if the scheme got the go ahead, it could provide a fun day for residents, a way of distributing information about local services that are available at those locations, and also a means to engage with people about helping organise and run the festival in the future.

He said: “We are waiting for a response from the lottery. But there is a bid to get some money to do something.”

The hope would be to have activities in each venue, such as children’s entertainers, face painting and perhaps a few rides.

He said he also thought one possibility going forward would be for the council to arrange a basic, no frills festival in the park in future, with residents working to provide additional attractions.

He said as well as its work organising the event, the community has raised money in the past for things such as free ‘big fairground rides’ to make sure there was something for teenagers as well as other age groups.

Mr Rich added there would be the need to bring in an event manager, but thought that could be funded by revenue from the event. That is something he expects to be looking into in September.

He said council assistance in the past had included advice on getting health and safety experts involved, and help recruiting stewards.

Sheffield Council says that the Lowedges Festival took place on the authority’s land, but it was not a council event, although it has tried to offer support to the festival.

The authority says its local area committee was looking to work with the community to see what could be made possible. But that work was still at the exploratory ideas stage at present, and it could not be said at this stage what could be provided. In the past, the council has provided assistance with safety arrangements at the venue.

The event has run for 16 years, missing two years during the coronavirus pandemic.