A LONG-RUNNING children’s festival which allowed youngsters to enjoy a day of activities at Colchester Castle Park every summer has seen its last instalment after the organiser of 28 years decided to call it a day.

The Young Children’s Festival (YCF) has run in Colchester since 1995 thanks to the efforts of Harriet Miller, 71, who worked year after year alongside fellow volunteers to organise stalls and secure funding so the event could keep running.

But with a dwindling number of volunteers and high running costs, Mrs Miller decided earlier this month that the 2022 edition of the YCF would sadly have to be its last.

She said: “I had been thinking a bit about our age and how we were going to keep organising it with just the three of us on the committee – there used to be 15 of us at one stage.”

Mrs Miller would often start work in January to start organising the summer event, a role which she described as being “like a part-time job".

The event ran in the early years partly thanks to grants from Essex County Council and more latterly that money came from Colchester Council.

“There was a golden age when I worked for early years in the county council, and I could just get the funding,” she said.

“In 2012 I started the long scrabble for funds here and there, and we had the Essex Community Foundation based in Chelmsford.

“As times have got more drastic, their criteria have become more about supporting people in distressed circumstances, so the last several years, we haven’t got it.”

With the funding having reached the end of its three-year funding cycle from Colchester Council, however, there has not been enough money for the event to go ahead this year, with the running costs for the YCF standing at the £4,000 mark.

The remaining bank balance of £1,500 is likely to go towards the Colchester Toy Library, with its founding member Pam Cook having been a major force in helping the YCF in its early years.

“People like Ann Warner, Angela McQuitty, Chris Earey, and my husband, Robert, have been so important.

“It would be running 30 years in 2025, which we were hoping to celebrate, but we won’t get there,” Mrs Miller said.

“As I have got older, it’s easier for someone to[ take this sort of thing on] once I step aside – they can put their own stamp on it if they do step forward.”