Barleyfest brings music, food and fun to Long Melford for sixth year

Dozens of families enjoyed great entertainment, delicious food and lovely homemade crafts at Barleyfest, which returned for its sixth year over the weekend.

On Saturday (July 26), the team at Barleycombe - one of Lifeways’ residential care services in Long Melford, Suffolk – transformed the site’s garden into an inclusive, vibrant festival filled with music, food and community spirit.This year’s event featured performances by the Phoenix Marching Band and the Ultimate 80s Tribute band, alongside BBQ food, an ice cream van, a bouncy castle for children, and stalls selling everything from skincare products to homemade crafts. 

Angela Dodds, Registered Manager at Barleycombe, said the event has grown exponentially from its humble beginnings in 2019.

“It was just a few families and friends to start with, but over the years it’s grown. It’s gotten to the stage now where we have people from the local community coming, we have different stalls, live bands - and everyone enjoys it.“It’s something we built from our own social fund, and every year we’ve been lucky enough to have so many people come to the event that we’ve been able to put it back on for future years. Ahead of the event, the service was awarded £500 by Lifeways as part of its 30 Wishes campaign, launched to celebrate the company’s 30th anniversary. The funding will go towards repairing the service’s summer house, which had previously been used by residents for movie nights but was damaged in recent storms.

Lifeways senior leaders also donated vouchers to be used as raffle prizes during the eventKaren Jones, Managing Director of Residential Services at Lifeways, who attended the event on Saturday, said: “It was an absolute pleasure to award Barleycombe the £500 needed to help repair its summer house.

“I’d like to thank the team at Barleycombe, as well as the people who live there who co-produced the event, for putting on such a wonderful community day supported by people in and around Long Melford.”

“Barleyfest 2025 was a smash hit, and we’re really excited to do the whole thing again next year.”Barleycombe is an 11-bedroom residential service provided by Lifeways, supporting 10 men with learning disabilities, autism and acquired brain injuries to live more independently. It was last rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission in 2023.