Your community needs you: begin a tradition

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Do not set foot in Ulverston unless you have plenty of stamina. This Lakeland market town is known as ‘festival town' - not for an ancient local tradition it honours annually, but because of the incredible success of an enterprising arts initiative, whose lantern procession project 28 years ago sparked the community's appetite for arbitrary celebrations. Today, the rammed festival calendar includes Carnival Day, Shetland Pony Grand National, Dickensian Festival, Flag Festival, Charter Festival, Agricultural Show, Beer Festival, Literary Festival, Fashion Week - you get the idea. Every festival has its own organising committee and everyone is welcome. Can one town have too much fun? Kay Hebbourn, who runs the Go Ulverston website and adores her hyperactive home-town, admits that even she had to take a year off, because of "volunteer burnout".

But community spirit runs deep in Ulverston. When, in 1999, it looked as though the mid-Victorian stately home Ford House and its nine-acre parkland estate were to be sold for development, locals formed the Ford Park Community Group to buy, restore and open up the estate for local use. Also largely volunteer run, Ford Park is a highly versatile venue. As well as hosting the lantern procession finale, it has gardens, food-growing projects, rehearsal and recording studios, outdoor theatre, car-boot sales and a community action programme. Visit www.goulverston.co.uk.

Festivals are wonderful ways to encourage more visitors to your area and help build community spirit by uniting local talents and interests. Celebrations of regional foods, craft and art shows, and revivals of folklore traditions are all options to consider.

The Prince's Countryside Fund is Country Living magazine's charity of the year and will be supporting its work at the CL Fairs and in the magazine. It's funded by businesses that have a connection to the countryside, through the products they make or sell. You can donate through your post office. Visit www.princescountrysidefund.org.uk

Click here to visit the Your Community Needs You! page

Click here to find out more about Country Living magazine's Your Countryside Needs You! campaign