All Upcoming Events
What is The Elder Stubbs Festival?
This annual festival takes place in the nine-acre Elder Stubbs Allotment Site, amongst the flowers, apple orchards, and a strange collection of wooden dinosaurs. Eat your heart out Chelsea Flower Show – this is the real gardeners paradise!
Every year members of our Elder Stubbs Recovery Group rise to the occasion and organise this special festival. Organising such a large event enables them to develop in confidence, teamwork and planning skills, and connects Restore to the wider community.
By involving around 150 local volunteers, performers and organisations, and with 3,000 devoted attendees, the Elder Stubbs Festival is a fantastic platform for raising mental health awareness whilst contributing to a strong and active community.
Just a little of what we have in store for you this year…
- Headlining the Main Stage is Emily Macguire, singer/songwriter an advocate for mental health. Ms. Macguire speaks frequently in the media about combating the stigma of mental illness, including BBC Radio 2 and 4!
- Raw Sounds and Music in Mind – two talented bands who use music as part of their mental health recovery.
- Deaf choir Handy Voices will be performing and teaching guests how to sign along to popular songs!
- Oxford favourites, Horns of Plenty.
- Hands-on workshops, including Bath Bomb Making, Bird Feeder Building, Cooking Demos, Soul Dance, yoga, Mindfulness and Tai Chi.
- World food stands from local traders across Oxford.
- As always the allotments will be heaving with craft stores from all our recovery groups!
- Swing boats, pony rides, treasure hunts, parachute games, tight-rope walking, and crafts. Plus Matthew Belbin, children’s entertainer will be there to engage children in song and dance.
Previous Festivals
Take a look at what the Oxford Mail had to say about last year’s festival, and check out these amazing photos, taken by talented street photographer Jeff Slade.
“Well, there was a short shower after all, but being British, we wouldn’t let that dampen our spirits, would we? More than 3,000 people turned up once again to enjoy one of OX4’s most cherished events last Saturday.
Elder Stubbs is a unique festival for a unique community – boasting a diverse array of attractions from performing arts to hands-on workshops, world cuisine to willow weaving. I’m sure it’s one of the few places in the country where belly dancers, martial artists and poets rub shoulders among flowers, giant wooden sculptures and vegetable patches.
With more than 50 stallholders presenting their wares throughout this urban oasis it really is colourful in every sense of the word. I wound my way through the apple orchard and enjoyed some old school dub from Natty Marks, got involved in the judging of some prize-winning pumpkins and got to go home with some delicious homemade organic jam, yum!
Ultimately, the nine-acre site is a leading example of the successful reinvention of city land use, and this annual celebration provides a welcome platform for over 20 local community groups and charities to raise valuable funds for their causes. So, be sure to have it pencilled in your diary again for next year.
One of my most enjoyable moments at Elder Stubbs Festival was watching a pop-up performance from Oxford Playhouse – which sees the city’s leading theatre taking shows to unexpected places across the county.”
Get involved
If you are interested in volunteering at the festival, fill in our online volunteering form.
If you would like to book a stall at the festival, please email stalls@restore.org.uk for a price list and booking form.
If you are a musician or performer and would like to be part of the festival, email mary.robertson@restore.org.uk.
Photo credit: Jeff Slade
Take part in an open water swim in the iconic River Thames.
Swimmers can choose between lengths of 2km, 5km and 10km. This event has been set up to provide a firm challenge to all level of swimmers, from beginners to Olympic hopefuls.
The Bray Lake Swim Challenge will be the 6th time this event has ever taken place and is expected to fill up with all the regional and surrounding swimming, triathlon clubs and also individuals entering to win the chance of being crowned Champion. This event is part of the Thames Open Water Swim Series.
We will offer plenty of fundraising support and advice, and invite you for a private tour of our recovery group, to see the impact of your support first hand. We will also give you a Restore t-shirt to wear once you’ve dried off after your swim!
How?
1. Register here— use code RESTORE at the checkout for a 10% discount.
2. Let us know you’re fundraising for us so we can thank and support you.
3. Create a Justgiving page or download a sponsorship form to collect donations.
Find out more: www.f3events.co.uk/event/Bray-Lake-Swim-Challenge-1023
Now in its 4th year, TrekFest is fast becoming the UK’s best charity walk. Taking place in the stunning Peak District, TrekFest offers participants a choice to complete one of four demanding trekking routes between 25 – 100km.
TrekFest is tough…there’s no getting away from that fact – but it is achievable, as thousands of trekkers over the last three years will testify to. Yes, it hurts; yes, it will push you; yes, there are moments when you will doubt yourself – BUT, you can and will succeed with the right physical training and mental preparation. Whether you’re a first timer or a hardened TrekFester; whatever your reasons for signing up; whatever you hope to achieve, TrekFest will push you to your limits but prove that anything is possible.
Download a brochure
Registration Fee and Fundraising Target:
We ask that you pay the registration fee and in addition, you commit to raising the minimum sponsorship as shown below. Restore will, in return, pay for the cost of your trek*
25km – pay £35, and fundraise £140
50km – pay £45, and fundraise £300
75km – pay £50, and fundraise £400
100km – pay £60, and fundraise £460
*We must receive 50% of your fundraising target (£220/£140/£60) at least 6 weeks prior to the challenge, in order to pay for your entry.
How?
1. Click on the appropriate location and distance to register:
2. Let us know you’re fundraising for us so we can thank and support you
3. Set up a Justgiving page or download a sponsorship form to collect donations
4. Start training!
Bigger and better every year. Join us for live music, a bouncy castle, kids’ activities, food, and craft stalls. All amongst the stunning Fleet Meadow community garden and orchard. 
A poetic celebration of art produced to capture mental illness recovery.
This exhibition brings together a collection of art created by individuals connected to Restore, celebrating ongoing recovery journeys and to remind the viewer how far some have travelled.
It will showcase art in a variety of mediums, with a focus on photography. The stunning artwork vividly portrays feelings and captures life.
Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm, Sat 12pm – 4pm
Registration closes 3rd July!
Have you always dreamed of doing your own Top Gear style dash across to Europe? A Banger Rally is the challenge of taking a car which has seen better days on a journey to fulfil its destiny!
It’s not all about being behind the wheel though, you’ll stop at some amazing places, there’ll be numerous daily challenges, and plenty of opportunities to party the nights away.
At the end of it all there’ll be the friends, the stories and the memories… a road trip like no other which you’ll remember for the rest of your life.
The Route
Reims – Zurich – Stelvio – Lake Garda – Venice – Trieste – Dubrovnik – Albania – Thessaloniki – Istanbul
How?
1. Register here. Enter the code RESTORE25 in the “How did you hear about us” section. This ensures that 25% of the entry fee goes directly to Restore. If you raise a minimum of £800, we will refund your registration fee.
2. Set up a Justgiving page or download a sponsorship form to collect donations.
3. Let us know you’re fundraising for us, so we can thank and support you.
4. Have the trip of a lifetime!
Find out more: www.boombangerrally.co.uk
Bike Oxford is a day of marked rides of 25, 50 and 80 miles taking in the best scenery of Oxford and the surrounding countryside.
In 2015, seven brilliant cyclists rode across Oxfordshire for Restore, raising a whopping £1075 – including Chris who cycled 80 miles on a CARGO bike! The atmosphere of the day was fantastic, with riders being treated to food stops along the way, cheered across the finish line, and making the most of the post-cycle beer tent.
Entry is free for all Restore fundraisers, and you even get a jazzy Restore t-shirt.
How?
1. Register your interest here (please include the distance you’d like to cycle – 25, 50 or 80 miles).
We are offering free places to all our cyclists (usually worth £33), we just ask that you raise £100 for Restore.
2. Create a Justgiving page or download a sponsorship form to collect donations
For more information visit: www.bikeoxford.co.uk
DEVIL MUD RUN is a hardcore, hilly 8 kilometre course featuring over 31 obstacles and gives you the chance to run across open, rugged countryside, through woods with plenty of mud and water thrown in!
