Kestrels are to host Grassroots Festival

KESGRAVE Kestrels FC will host this year’s Suffolk FA Grassroots Festival.

THE end-of-season Suffolk FA Grassroots Festival 2023 will be hosted by Kesgrave Kestrels FC.

The two-day festival will take place at the Kesgrave High School in Ipswich on Saturday, May 20th and Sunday, May 21st 2023.

This year’s event will be the eleventh annual festival to be held in Ipswich – and will take place at a new venue for the first time since 2018.

The festival will once again be open to teams aged from under-7 to under-16 and open age disability adults.

Teams will be able to sign up for this year’s festival via the Suffolk FA website from 5pm on March 22nd 2023, with the window being open until 5pm on Friday, April 28th 2023.

Suffolk FA Football Development Officer (Retention) James Morley, who is organising the festival, said: “We are really looking forward to bringing the festival to a new venue for the first time since moving from Gainsborough Sports Centre to Whitton United in 2018.

There will be a up to £25 charge per team to sign up for the festival.

“We had a dress rehearsal following the Covid lockdowns at Kesgrave High School, with 100 teams attending one of the pre-season festivals in 2021 which provided a blueprint of how the venue could host the festival.

“The Suffolk FA Grassroots Festival is the largest event we run in this county and being able to welcome teams to Kesgrave will be an exciting new challenge for Suffolk FA.

“Please be ready for March 22nd when entries go live to sign up – it will be first come, first served and clubs will only be able to sign up online. There will be reminders in the build up to this, but please be ready.”

Kesgrave Kestrels FC Chair Carl Chittock said: “Kesgrave Kestrels FC are both delighted and excited to be working in partnership with Suffolk FA, in order to provide the Grassroots Football Festival.

“Our club ethos is very much about giving children of all abilities the opportunity to play football, so hosting the grassroots festival is aligned to our values as a club and we are really looking forward to hosting the grassroots festival.”

Pictured above at the launch are Kesgrave Kestrels Under-11 Blue, flanked by manager Mark Lay (far right) and Suffolk FA Football Development Officer (Retention) James Morley, who is organising the festival.

The schedule for the festival will be as follows:

Saturday, May 20th 2023

U7 to U10 Girls (5v5)

U11 Girls (7v7)

U10 Mixed (9v9)

U16 Girls (11v11)

U14 Mixed (11v11)

U7 Mixed (5v5)

U12 Girls (9v9)

U16 Mixed (11v11)

U13 Girls (9v9)

Adult Disability Festival