OX Trails get Uptonogood!
On Saturday 21st May 2025 OX Trails did our first fundraising event at the Uptonogood MTB festival in the village of Upton (hence the pun) in South Oxfordshire. If you haven’t been before it’s a brilliant event that attracts hundreds of riders and their families on a range of routes ranging from 6 to 35 miles, catering for families, novice and experienced riders and all based around the glorious trails on the Ridgeway - followed by live music, locally brewed beer and locally sourced food and all for local charities. I’ve ridden the 35 mile route a few times and it’s a tough one! We attended the event to primarily do some community outreach with our target community (local riders!) and to raise some vital funds for operations. We decided to run a wheel of fortune game and were very fortunate to secure sponsorship from Brink Cycles, Mountain Mania, Ridgeway Cycles, Jim’s Fitness and Peatys - with prizes including grips, bike wash, chain lube, personal trainer vouchers, drinks bottles, multi tools and more! A huge thanks goes to our sponsors without whom our fundraiser would not have been possible. OX Trails added some T shirts, stickers, fridge magnets and Haribo sweets as consolation prizes. With the weather forecast to be good and boxes full of fantastic prizes it was shaping up to be a good day!
Myself, Sam and Kat got to the venue early to get our event gazebo set up, with our flag, table prizes and, of course, the wheel of fortune! Seeing it all come together and look so good calmed any nerves I had! It didn’t take long before the wheel drew attention and people started playing - and it didn’t take long for our prizes to start being won! Not only that but it was amazing to start talking to people about the work of OX Trails and hearing their support and feedback. Naturally it went quiet when the various groups went out on the routes but at about 11.30 it started picking up as the first riders returned and the party really got started! With the exception of a small spit of rain the weather stayed glorious, certainly tough conditions for those out on the bikes - it was warm enough just in the shade of the gazebo! The wheel continued to attract attention and prizes were flying out the door. The conversations and networking continued which I found extremely energising and inspiring and resulted in new insights and new actions for the Association to follow up. The bands were amazing - a personal highlight of mine was the cover of The Pixies “Where is my mind”. It was good to see so many familiar faces and a lot of laughs and banter followed.
Before too long it was time to pack up and, most importantly, cash up. To our sheer delight we managed to raise a whopping £300! This far exceeded any expectations we had and we want to thank everyone that played and helped raise money. Overall, a highly successful day and we can’t wait to come back next year!
Thanks for reading and happy shredding!
Dan
