Its coming to that time of year again where the nights get darker, cold sets in and Christmas is just around the corner. For many in Coulsdon it sees YuleFest the annual light switch on, market and fun fair grace our high street.

Unfortunately, last year the event was unable to go ahead due to limitations with COVID-19 and the effect it had on our high street businesses and community. We felt that asking local businesses to help fund the event was unfair after all that they had to endure during this devasting time. Time also showed that the event would not have been able to go ahead anyway due to local lockdown restrictions put in place.

 

This year our team at YuleFest have been looking at the event and how we are able to put in on in the wake of COVID-19. Numbers of daily cases continue to be on the higher side and the event would need to take further steps to ensure the spread of the virus during the event.

We therefore have come to the decision that the 2021 event will also be cancelled and we hope to be able to return next year in 2022.

Our decision was not taken lightly and the team have looked at all information given to us by the Council as well as other sources to protect our community further, coming into the colder winter months. By having the event, there is the likely hood of a spike in cases and this was not something our team wanted to contribute to.

As always YuleFest has always been about community and bringing cheer and excitement and with this looming this wouldn’t be the case. Therefore, the best decision was to cancel.

 

Due to the event not taking place we also regret that for this year Coulsdon will not be lit up this Christmas. Our festive lights are usually paid for from our kind Coulsdon Town Councillors, paid from the community ward budget. However due to the current situation at the Council this fund has been paused and therefore we are unable to obtain the funds required to put on the display. The festive lighting display has for the last 8 years been provided by the team at YuleFest at a tremendous cost and without the help of the community ward budget we just are unable to meet these costs this year.

We however do not want to repeat this for next year and have therefore set up a just giving page to help raise the funds required for the lights for next year. We hope that you are able to give as little or as much as you can to help light up the community once again in 2022. All named donations will be added to our light up Coulsdon page on the YuleFest website to show our thanks to the great community we have here in Coulsdon.

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DONATE HERE

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Once again, our apologies for the event not going ahead and we hope that you understand our reasoning behind our decision.

 

For any questions please email – info@yulefest.co.uk

 

Here’s to 2022