Henley Town Council 'pleading for help' with Christmas festival amid £19k cost

Drug taking and noisy polluting generators were among the issues encountered during last year’s Henley Christmas Festival.

Thousands of residents attended last year’s annual event in November, which takes place in the town centre and saw actor and model Jerry Hall switch on the festive lights.

Town councillors are now “pleading for help” from volunteers for this year’s event which continues to grow “bigger and bigger” as it battles a £19,000 cost.

Communications manager Daisy Smith told a town and community committee that the festival was “very well supported” and there had been “lots of positive comments”.

But said a future aim for the event was to have “a bit more of a focus on community”.

Ms Smith suggested speaking to schools and community groups that used to have stalls but haven’t recently.

She said: “Potentially speaking to the Henley Man’s Club about marshalling or being involved in some way to again, bring more of the community to that event.

“Volunteer marshals for that would be amazing, but we also appreciate it's dark and cold, and also sometimes a bit scary.

“The Henley Man’s Club seemed like a really nice fit for that potentially but there maybe other community groups that can do that.

“[On the] event management side of things, encouraging more volunteers, speaking to police again to try and encourage more presence.

“We did have more presence this year than we did last year, which is good but again just staying on the case of that to make people feel safer and more supported.”

The possibility of drafting in professional marshals to help run the festival was raised by Councillor Sarah Miller, who told the meeting she had noticed “a lot of drugs” there this year.

She said: “Can we look at costs for professional marshals or a company that can provide marshalling that can help with safety as well?

“I felt a lot safer this year because I saw the police, it was really good. I would much rather see Barb [neighbourhood policing supervisor Barb Taylor] and the police walking around because there was a lot of drugs. I smelt quite a lot but they were on it [the problem].”

Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward asked whether Cllr Miller wanted more marshals or more security, as they could not be expected to perform the same roles.

Cllr Miller replied: “As it [the festival] gets bigger and bigger, I think it would be worth investigating just seeing what the cost of getting 15 marshals in.”

However, another problem was the cost pressure that more paid staff would add. “The other thing I would also bear in mind is that, ideally, Christmas would be self-sustaining,” Mr Jacklin-Edward said.

“The big hole in the accounts is because Christmas cost £19,000. Whereas, two years before that, it basically broke even. That’s £19,000 net. If it weren’t for the sponsorship, we’d be talking £40,000.

“A stage is a huge cost, a larger stage is a massive cost, bearing in mind that only a few years ago everything was done in the open. If anything, we should be looking at trying to reduce staffing costs.”

He continued: “Most villages and towns, when they run their Christmas festivals, most of the marshalling will actually be done by volunteers. I think we do need more marshals and volunteers.”

The meeting also heard worries about Christmas market huts sapping the “Christmas feel” from the festival, as well as sometimes hour-long queues to see Santa in his grotto in the King's Arms Barn.

Ms Smith said: “I think the main thing is to have elves better prepped on what to do and how to get them [people] through quickly and also have a little chat with Santa about keeping the momentum — as he loves to chat to people.”

There were further questions raised about generators used to power fairground rides at the festival, which councillors heard were “very loud” and caused “a lot of fumes”.

Councillor Glen Lambert, who chaired the meeting, said: “By far the worst ones are the ones associated with the fairground rides. They have big trailers with massive generators that make a lot of noise and kick out a lot of fumes.”

“Obviously, it would be nicer if they were quieter, but it’s the fairground ones that are really, really nasty; very large, very loud and a lot of fumes come out of those.”