Goodricke plan free festival on Hes East

Goodricke College is set to kick off the campus festival season this weekend with GoodFest 2010.

The event, which will be held in the new Goodricke area of the Heslington East campus, was set up by the college to mark the college’s official opening.

College Chair Tim Ellis told Vision: “The decision was made to have the event in the summer so that we could take full advantage of the surroundings on a hopefully sunny day.”

The event is running over the whole weekend with afternoon and evening events on the Saturday and a more relaxed atmosphere on the Sunday.

A variety of fairground style stalls will be run by the JCRC over the weekend and will include a tombola, a hook-a-duck stall and a “sponge the chair” game in which the Chair will be pelted with sponges dipped in green paint.

There will also be a stand from local business Milkshack selling milkshakes, a barbeque selling food and entertainment in the form of Juggle Soc throughout the day and a Samba band in evening.

Goodricke have also managed to borrow the Courtyard’s mobile bar for the day and meaning Goodricke students will be able to drink in their own college for the first time since they lost McQs at the end of last year.

Ellis continued: “It should be a great atmosphere. People from all colleges are welcome – not just Goodrickers.”

The Sunday event, whilst still open to students, is actually an open college event meaning that local residents and local schools have also been invited to see the new campus and meet Goodricke students.

“Local residents have had to put up with a lot of disruption because of the building work so it’s a great chance to foster good relations with them,” said Ellis, adding: “If all the planning and effort put into is anything to go by it’ll be a fantastic weekend!”

GoodFest is first “campus festival” of the year and is soon to be followed by the likes of the Alcuin Summer Fete, the James College Quad Dash, Wentworth’s WentFest and charity favourite Woodstock later this term.