It’s amazing what can be achieved with hard work, energy and passion to bring the community together – The Saxmundham Community Festival, SaxFest is a two-day festival celebration with a mission to create a community hub which celebrates creativity, connection and music. With support and sponsors from the local community, town council and Sizewell C, 2025 was its biggest and most successful yet. It is held on Memorial Field and is completely free. Saturday night saw people waiting patiently in the queue that had formed due to it being totally full, the organisers had to operate a one in one out policy – now that’s called a successful event!
It was family friendly with plenty to keep the kids occupied with workshops which included circus skills, balloon modelling and music. There was magic shows, a mini fun fair, laser games, bouncy platform, face painting and the ultimate slushy stand with so many different flavours to choose and get your kids not only hyped up but with coloured tongues!
Food and drink stalls kept everyone fed and hydrated and the reasonably priced bar encouraged reusable branded cups which you buy for a pound on your first round. This idea has been around for sometime and we all actually appreciate it as there is nothing like a branded pint cup for a memento.
There were a few marquees on site, whether to chill away from the sun, or to sit and chat with others – as a community event it was encouraged to chat with others. This, we all know brings people together which it why we were here. The pop-up market was also on, just around the corner, where local artisans and crafters were displaying and selling their wares.
The services were represented with the ambulance and the fire brigade with a nice shiny fire engine in sight. Plus the NHS bus – a great resource for anyone to use to get a free blood pressure test, or chat to a practitioner about anything with no judgement.
Over the two days they had twenty-two bands and artists perform – that’s a huge number for a community event and the acts ranged from new bands, local bands, established bands and some great tribute acts – plus they were all paid – something not that common for such an event.
The music acts on each day kicked-off around lunchtime and included the likes Painting The Silence, Random Blues Company, Tempus Frayed, Reno and Rome, Hope Ahead, Psychic Pimps, Midlife Mayhem – a real mix of covers, originals, from rock to pop to blues, it was a wonderful varied mix with the headliners being Abba Chique on the Friday and UK Queen on the Saturday where both brought the crowds to the dance area.
With the amazing weather, SaxFest 2025 was a perfect weekend to celebrate the community spirit of Saxmundham, it was clear everyone had an amazing time – well done to Terry Barrow and the team!
