Is village of Podington the nation's most excited about the Jubilee?

Podington may only have a population of about 500 people, but it’s staked its claim as the village that is the most excited about the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Despite their small size they will be hosting a ‘massive five-day festival’ to celebrate.

It all kicks off tonight (June 1) at 7pm, with a concert in the church with MP for North East Bedfordshire Richard Fuller and the Lord Lieutenant in attendance. Both will be doing readings from Michael Morpurgo’s ‘There Once is a Queen’ commissioned for the Jubilee.

On Thursday afternoon, starting at 2pm, there will be a street party that is expected to be attended by 300 people.

That evening there will be a beacon lighting and hog roast at 7pm which will be attended by the Dep. Lord Lieutenant.

All day on Friday about 20 gardens will be open to the public throughout the village and the mayor of Bedford will be in attendance.

In the evening there will be a quiz night in Saxby's cider yard.

Saturday will begin with a parade through the village that 100 people will take part in. The parade will feature John Bull, a Land Girl’s float, horses, donkeys, Ukrainians on a float, a History float, The Admiral of the Village fleet and more than 30 vintage tractors.

In the afternoon there will be a village fete that will have live streaming of the Derby as well as cow pat gambling, where a grid is marked out on the ground and each numbered square is sold off with the winner being selected by the square in which the cow does its business.

There will also be stalls featuring favourites such as splat the rat and a free barbecue laid on by the American military because of village connections from the Second World War.

In the evening Disco Shed, who has performed at Latitude, Reading and Leeds festivals and many others will be playing from 7pm to midnight at the cricket ground. There will also be a free fish and chip supper for the whole village.

The festival will conclude on Sunday with a service of thanksgiving at 11am.

The festival is being run by parish council chairman, Stephan Rand, his wife Lucy, Charlie Gibson who runs Podington United Services Club, Phil ‘The Admiral’ Garlick, Andrew Mahon and his wife Hannah, and David ‘Digger’ Watts.

Stephen said: “I think we’ve all got a bit excited and had a lot of fun doing it. The inspiration for the size of the event came from when we were planning a VE day 75th anniversary celebration but that got cancelled due to Covid so there’s been a lot of pent up community spirit and it’s all coming out.”

The festival was funded by a magazine that has been published and delivered to every home in the parish. The magazine raised £9,000 in advertising revenue.

There is a flower festival taking place throughout the weekend in the church. All children in the parish are also set to receive a commemorative mug.

The village had hoped to attempt breaking the world record for the most amount of coronation chicken served simultaneously, but unfortunately they were not able to raise the funds to get authenticated by the Guinness Book of World Records.