Blog: Feel Good Festival and Eddington sport

The Eddington Feel Good Festival provides an afternoon on January 18 dedicated to help visitors relax, unwind and get ready for the New Year.

We devised a plan for the Eddington Feel Good Festival to make it a community exercise event, rather than just a fitness event where people turn up, do a class, get sweaty and then go home. What we wanted to do was a festival that highlights all the fantastic work that our sports instructors are doing in Eddington on a weekly basis throughout the whole year and celebrate them. It gives the instructors a chance to showcase what they do in a half-hour slot, just a little taster for people.

For the people of Eddington and the surrounding areas, it is a chance for them to come along, do what they want in their own time, try something out for half an hour. If they don’t like it they do not have to come back again, they can try something else. People can also just come in for a cup of tea or coffee and a bit of cake – or a healthy snack!

Physical activity is so important for your mental health, and we know that people working for the University of Cambridge or studying at the University can find it a very stressful time. The Feel Good Festival is a nice way to relax and recharge your batteries, especially just after Christmas, and do something for yourself for a little while and hopefully feel a bit more revitalised for the New Year.

Part of my job role is to bring people together through exercise and physical activity. As well as the Feel Good Festival, we are starting a new Eddington Runners group on January 12, which will bring another little community together. If there is a common goal, it will bring people together, people who would not normally meet can start talking and form relationships, and that is the most important thing. This is not just for people who live within Eddington, but for those in the surround areas as well. Eddington is Eddington, but it is also part of the city and it is great that people are coming in and out of Eddington and visiting the site and doing other things as well.

We want residents to have their own ideas for exercise groups and lead with things. At the end of the day, it is their community so having a say what they want is really important. For example, we have had a few people come forward for an Eddington adult football team, which is great. If anyone does have any ideas please do contact me on Joe.Notarnicola@cambridge.gov.uk

• BOOK ONTO THE EDDINGTON FEEL GOOD FESTIVAL HERE