Jesmond Community Festival

Jesmond Community Festival 2026

The 2026 Jesmond Community Festival comprised 84 events, exhibitions and
competitions, slightly more than the previous year’s 82, but total attendances
(around 9,360) were slightly less than in the previous year (9,650). Once again,
the programme lasted for 30 days, with at least one event taking place on 26 of
those days.
Festival events are very varied, with many different indoor venues, including
churches and church halls, Jesmond Library, care homes, the Northumberland
Club, Pegasus Assembly and this year, for the first time, Starbuck’s in St
George’s Terrace. Outdoor events took place in parks, greens, cemeteries,
allotments and the Community Orchard. (This year’s distinctly mixed weather
certainly affected attendances at some outdoor events.) 
As last year, Guided Walks were particularly popular, with most being full to
capacity, and the Teddy Bear Trail was another huge success, this year with a
literary theme. The 2026 festival also saw the launch of “Discover Jesmond
1888”, a local history project bringing together St George’s and the United
Reformed Churches, and incorporating a new walking route (now available
online) from one to the other. Popular speakers included Dr Austen Ivereigh, on
the legacy of Pope Francis, at the Church of the Holy Name, and Keith Jewitt,
on the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in the library.
The range of musical events is astonishing, with everything from full-scale
choral concerts to performances by West Jesmond School pupils in Jesmond
Library, and by Semitones (a small instrumental group) in three local care
homes, plus lunchtime recitals, mandolins, fiddles, ceilidhs, recorder, jazz
events, circle and Scottish dancing, and the St George’s church bells!
Event organisers catered for a range of ages and interests, including children’s
crafts and model train rides, and “Wellbeing for Life”, cafes and concerts for
older people. 
Many events are free to participants, and others try to keep costs as low as
possible.
Many Jesmond residents remember fondly the parades down Osborne and
Acorn Roads, that were a feature of early Jesmond Community Festivals, but
were ended by rising costs. Since then, we have experimented with different
ways of launching the festival. This year Holy Trinity Church hosted a very
successful launch event on the first day of the festival, and we would like to
thank the church and their supporters for the warm welcome that they
provided.