Irlam and Cadishead Spring Community Festival is coming to Salford on Bank Holiday Monday, May 6, at Cadishead Park.

As the summer weather continues to grace the city of Salford, the outdoor community festival at Cadishead Park is being held in just under a week.

The local community festival was founded in 1950 and aims to give local businesses the opportunity come together and gives local Salford citizens a fun filled day out.

Sam Butterworth, chair of the committee that organises Irlam and Cadishead community festival, explained that the festival is a way to bring the local community together.

He said: “The festival is concentrated on this area and we’re trying to keep everything local and get local people involved.

“As a committee we also run an event in August which has been going on for almost 70 years, so this festival is kind of an offshoot of that. To be able to fill up that bank holiday with something that local people can go down to, have visit, see local community groups, free activities, things like that for families.”

Sarah Hapgood, owner of Crocheted with Love by Sarah, an online crochet merchant said: “If I’m not already having a stall at these local events I like to take my boys along. We love looking around the stalls and getting involved with the demonstrations.

“My boys love learning about new things and it’s great to see what’s happening in our local area.”

Sarah Hapgood began crocheting just over 3 years ago when she wanted to get in touch with her creative side once again.

Subsequently, 3 years later, Sarah often finds herself at festivals and fairs like this, selling her homemade goods.

With no previous experience of crocheting, Sarah purchased some hooks, yarn and began teaching herself how to crochet with the help of YouTube.

Although Sarah’s goods are mostly sold online, she finds that events like Irlam and Cadishead community festival bring in a lot of traffic for her business.

Sarah said: “I have more success selling my items at these events than I do online. I feel that, especially with handmade items, people like to see and feel your work in person to see the quality of the items. I have had lots of lovely feedback, many repeat customers and custom order requests from promoting myself these types of events.”

Crocheted with Love by Sarah is a hit with the local community when attending these types of fairs.

Sarah said: “By supporting them you are not only helping them to support their business but their life behind it.

“Behind every sale from a small business is a maker doing a little happy dance!”

The bigger festival that takes place in August has been happening for almost 70 years now and although this festival is smaller, it is still giving local people the chance to showcase their business and get involved with their community.

Inspired by Kyan is a local business inspired by 6-year-old Kyan, who was formally diagnosed with Autism and Sensory issues in December 2017. Kyan’s mum made it her mission to find visual ways to simply help him day in, day out – whilst documenting Kyan’s journey on their Facebook page. They produce educational products such as daily routine charts, reward charts, flashcards, tooth brushing charts and preschool visuals for young children. With 164 people following their journey, Inspired by Kyan has grown more than they anticipated.

The Inspired by Kyan resources will be being sold at the festival in just over a week.


Although this is a small festival, there is still a lot of organising and planning that takes place in order to deliver the best festival they can to the local community.

Mr Buterworth said: “There’s a lot of stuff we have to do, we’re only a small team, we have to work with the local council cause obviously it’s on their land.

“Even a small event like this needs a lot of planning and looking at. But the most important thing is those ties in the local area, you can count on people in the local area to help out.”

 

Image credit.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *