East Finchley Festival is an inclusive FREE one-day community festival in London N2, produced for the benefit of the local community. The festival has existed in its current form since the early 1970s.
Since 2019, the festival has been run by East Finchley Festival CIC, a non-profit Community Interest Company and certified social enterprise, registered in England & Wales, company no. 12271366.
Funding
We are completely independent and receive no funding from Barnet Council or any other external body. We rely entirely on advertising and sponsorship from local businesses and kind donations from the public.
Donations
East Finchley Festival is free, inclusive and open to all – and is run entirely by volunteers. You can support your community festival with either a one-off or regular donation.
Meet the team
Event Managers: Alison Roberts, Mike Hughes, Catherine Stewart
Health & Safety: Andrew Myers-Nobbs
Sustainability: Josh King
Safeguarding: Alison Moore
Accounts & Finance: Nick Mugridge
Sponsorship: Catherine Stewart, Simon Douglass, Matthew Bond
Programme Advertising: Jess Feller
Raffle: Jess Feller, Owen Rowlands
Stage Managers: Mike Hughes, Barry Warren, Ben Hudson, Sas Hughes
Hosts: Simon Douglass, Nick Allan
ASMs: Jason Hancock, Mo Ali
Food Stalls: Elysia Polin
General Stalls: Alison Roberts, Alys Wainwright
Children’s Activities: Stacey Feldman
Sporting Activities: Catherine Stewart
Wellbeing Area: Sunnah Rose
Parade: Diana Morales Nielsen
Volunteer Co-ordinator: Steph Migchelsen
Traffic Manager: Derek Chambers
Site Manager: Owen Rowlands
Field Co-ordinator: Nick Mugridge
Field Team: Josh King, Andy Winterburgh, Charles O’Toole, Alison Moore
Design/Branding: Mike Hughes
Website: Alison Roberts
Social Media: Diana Morales Nielsen
We are supported by a huge army of volunteers, both in the build up to the festival and on the day. If you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you.
Festival Principles
East Finchley Festival CIC is committed to ensure that:
- East Finchley Festival is inclusive, with a welcome given to all within our community
- The festival is free at the point of entry
- Stage performances and entertainment are free of charge
- Stage acts perform on a voluntary basis and do not receive payment
- Preference is given to local (to N2) food vendors, stallholders and entertainment acts
- Quality local independent trade and craft stalls are preferred
- Vendors should consider the environmental impact of any products they sell. Balloons, foil, glitter and disposable plastics are not permitted.
- Food vendors should aim to minimise their use of single-use disposable items. Disposable containers and packaging should be degradeable/compostable via domestic facilities
- Vehicular access to Cherry Tree Wood is limited to essential suppliers. Festival attendees are encouraged to arrive on foot or by public transport.
- Motorised entertainments such as funfair rides are not permitted.
- Generators are kept to a minimum and only provided for the running of festival activities and infrastructure.
- We aim to leave Cherry Tree Wood in as good a state, if not a better, than it was before the festival.
- Consideration is shown to residents living in the immediate vicinity of Cherry Tree Wood to minimise any adverse impact the event might have upon the local area.
Sustainability
Our goal is to reduce East Finchley Festival’s carbon footprint and environmental impact incrementally each year. In this endeavour we seek to engage the local community and prioritise stallholders and vendors at the event who are committed to assisting us in making the festival as environmentally sustainable as possible.
Since taking over the management of East Finchley Festival in 2019 we have taken the following steps:
- 2020: We banned foil and plastic balloons, helium, and single-use plastics of any sort at the festival.
- 2021: Ensured that all our cups are now vegware, which is compostable in regular rubbish.
- 2022: Barnet Council installed a bottle refill station in Cherry Tree Wood.
- 2023: We replaced our diesel generators with an HVO (hydroteated vegetable oil) powered generator for the main stage and a solar array/battery combo for the community stage.
- 2024: We have used carbon offsetting to become carbon neutral.
- 2025: We trialled general and food recycling schemes on behalf of Barnet Council