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
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
Cultivate and Smoke and Thyme are partnering to bring us the best seasonal food harvest has to offer in the form of a seven course vegetarian taster menu! If you have not already sampled Smoke and Thyme’s heavenly meals we thoroughly recommend you do. As always a percentage of the profits go to Restore: perfect guilt free indulgence!
Cultivate and Smoke and Thyme are partnering to bring us the best seasonal food harvest has to offer in the form of a seven course vegetarian taster menu! If you have not already sampled Smoke and Thyme’s heavenly meals we thoroughly recommend you do. As always a percentage of the profits go to Restore: perfect guilt free indulgence!
Fancy a spot of Restore Christmas shopping? For the first time ever Restore have their own POP UP SHOP!
We are very busy preparing lots of Christmas items for the event. From bug houses, Candle holders, Felt Xmas decs, Cookies, Hot chocolate, truffles and everything in between. We have also made some trays, some we have painted and some we have made into hampers. We are very excited to have such an opportunity. See you there!
All are welcome to Fleet Meadows Christmas evening. There will be refreshments, homemade cards, ceramics, woodwork and crafts. We hope to see you there from 4:30.
We are so lucky to have a stall at this annual event (now in its 35th year)! Green fair is a wonderful celebration of all things green. It is a great opportunity to find unusual Christmas presents, enjoy delicious food, meet old friends, make new friends, or research your next eco-project!Around 100 stalls in three large halls, our famous Green Cafe, live music, and of course, Green Father Christmas!
Tickets: £2 on the door (50p concessions).
The Elder Stubbs recovery group are holding there very own Winter Warmer. Look no further for the perfect Christmas gift there will be cards, activities, chutneys, live music, face painting, food, mulled drinks and wreaths. See you all there!
Elder Stubbs are taking part in Art Week during the week of 22nd May, with a small exhibition space inside the recovery group and a sculpture trail in the outside allotments. There will be some beautiful pieces from members across Oxfordshire, if you’re in the area please do pop in for a wonder.