May Festivals
Elstow May Festival 1925
For hundreds, possibly thousands, of years, Elstow village has held a May Festival at the beginning of the month of May. These still take place - on the Saturday of the first May Bank holiday weekend.
Originally a pagan fertility rite and an opportunity for men and women to meet up in the spring, May festivals were appropriated by the Catholic church and made into a Christian event. Elstow Abbey was, like many others, granted a royal charter to hold huge commercial fairs here.
The fairs continued after the abolition of the abbeys and, in the 1600s, when the Puritan government banned maypoles Elstow ignored that and continued to hold their celebrations. Indeed, those events were almost certainly the original inspiration for John Bunyan's "Vanity Fair" in his world famous book "The Pilgrim's Progress".
The cattle and horse market moved, in 1900, to a purpose-built site, beside Bedford river.
From 1925 to 1965, the event was run by the village school and it attracted visitors from all over the world. To see photos from that time, visit our Picture Archive.
Originally a pagan fertility rite and an opportunity for men and women to meet up in the spring, May festivals were appropriated by the Catholic church and made into a Christian event. Elstow Abbey was, like many others, granted a royal charter to hold huge commercial fairs here.
The fairs continued after the abolition of the abbeys and, in the 1600s, when the Puritan government banned maypoles Elstow ignored that and continued to hold their celebrations. Indeed, those events were almost certainly the original inspiration for John Bunyan's "Vanity Fair" in his world famous book "The Pilgrim's Progress".
The cattle and horse market moved, in 1900, to a purpose-built site, beside Bedford river.
From 1925 to 1965, the event was run by the village school and it attracted visitors from all over the world. To see photos from that time, visit our Picture Archive.
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Updated July 2023
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