Bunkfest

This must be one of the furthest traveled BunkFest t shirts? Picture taken in Manchu Picchu in Peru by Liz, one of our many lovely volunteers. Has anyone any similar pictures?

Can you help volunteer? Can you give an hour or two helping Bunkfest with Stewarding, Serving beer and Bucket collecting and much more.....please contact volunteers@bunkfest.co.uk

Our friends Rusty Shackle are playing at Fat Lil's, Witney this weekend, why not pop along and say hello? check out their website for more info.

A huge thank you to the team behind the AFO conference, very informative, inspirational and great networking with fellow festival organisers.

For those that enjoyed Hope & Social at BunkFest they are playing at the Cornerstone in Didcot on the 6th October. May see you there!?

In 2002, Bob Wyatt (a life-long folk music enthusiast and musician) was running the Cross Keys pub at the top of the Kinecroft. Bob was considering a marquee for the car park behind the Cross Keys for various private events over the summer and approached Colin Dolton (a friend and fellow folk-music enthusiast since their schooldays) about the idea of using the marquee not just for private events but also to host a small folk music festival at the Cross Keys.
Bob and Colin de...cided the festival idea worth pursuing and approached the folk musicians who frequented the Cross Keys to gather ideas (and potential participants, many of whom have become stalwarts of the festival). Bob and Colin also approached The Cholsey and Wallingford Railway Preservation Society with a view to inviting their participation to raise much-needed funds for the society.
Dave Newson (musician from the Cross Keys folk session and music events specialist) and Jo Simmonds (Jo Clyde – chairman of C&WR and also a folk enthusiast) got together with Bob and Colin for a kick-off meeting – and BunkFest was born.
The name BunkFest derives from a local nickname for the Cholsey and Wallingford branch line of Great Western Railway. When Brunel was planning his route for the GWR, the people of Wallingford decided they did not want a main-line railway running through the middle of their town and so the railway was directed to the south and west of Wallingford and skirts the edge of neighbouring village, Cholsey. A single-track branch line was later built between Cholsey and Wallingford to serve both passenger and goods traffic. The legend goes that, on one occasion, the engine left the station without the carriages (which had been uncoupled as a prank). As the engine had done a bunk, the line was nicknamed the Wallingford Bunk.
Dave and Jo laid grand plans for the inaugural festival and it over-spilled from the Cross Keys pub onto the northern half of the Kinecroft.
The original tagline was Music, Dance, Steam and Beer, a homage to the four principle ideas for the festival. Steam referred to the C&WR, to the small group of live steam traction-engine enthusiasts who would gather at the top of the Kinecroft, and to the musical boat trips on the Thames provided by Salter's Steamers.
Over the years, the BunkFest has grown and moved out of the Cross Keys and now encompasses the whole of the Kinecroft, the town centre, the sports park and many venues around the town. The festival has evolved to become less folk-music orientated and more of a community event showcasing broad-appeal musical talent from around the world.
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Some great pictures, Credits to those we have used the pictures in this album. Many thanks to all involved/.

A week has almost past since BunkFest 2018 and normal activities are returning to normal on the Kinecroft thanks to our volunteers. If you would like to help next year please get in touch at volunteers@bunkfest.co.uk and be a part of one of the UK's biggest and best free family festivals.

We try our best to recycle at Bunkfest, today we are donating our straw bails to the local Donkey sanctuary.

Bob Wyatt this is all down to you!

Looking good Bunkfest

The lovely Janice is modelling this years Bunkfest t-shirt. Only £12. Buy one, wear it, remember Bunkfest all year!

Look up in the sky on Sunday at 1445hrs as Bunkfest will have it's very own flypast from a 1940's DC3 aircraft carrier

STOP PRESS. Wallingford to Cholsey train service now running an extra time at 9.50pm this evening (Saturday)