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Thank you to all those who voted for local charities to receive £100 from the £1000 Reading and Leeds Festival Festival Angels Left Luggage money. The 10 charities who will receive £100 each (in order of votes) are: In2Out Leeds Mind Candlelighters at The Square Martin House Children's Hospice Teenage Cancer Trust CICS - Christians in Calderdale Schools MND Association Meeting Point Leeds Inspire North The Wren Bakery (this was decided by the second vote!) Many thanks to all the 65 people who voted! We will be in touch next week to arrange transfer of the money! A little about each charity: Candlelighters: A childhood cancer diagnosis turns lives upside down. We’re there for families from diagnosis to provide a range of emotional, practical and financial support. Our tailored support helps make their journey that little bit easier and we’ll be there as long as they need us. When my grandchild was diagnosed with cancer at 19months, Candlelighters were a ray of sunshine in a very dark storm. They provide laughter and smiles to both the children and the family and that's invaluable. Web CICS - Christians in Calderdale Schools: The CICS experienced team offers a wide range of activity to support schools across Calderdale. They work predominantly in Secondary Schools. CICS is the lead organisation of ‘The Partnership’ alongside several Christian based organisations and the church across the Borough. CICS and The Partnership offer a wide range of school based involvement including: mentoring; faith panels; Chilli Tuesdays for Calderdale College Students; input into lessons around a wide range of topics; support for staff; out of school Christian based groups. Web In2Out: In2Out works out of HMYOI Wetherby in West Yorkshire and most of the young people we work with come from all over the North and Midlands of England. We have helped them to resettle into society after release and move toward independent living. We have brought reconciliation into families, order into chaotic lives and a sense of hope for the future. And we have made this happen by showing them individually that someone cares. Web Inspire North: support those facing mental health problems, dementia, homelessness, domestic abuse, and resettlement to build a brighter future. They work across the north of England, from Doncaster to Durham. Web Martin House Hospice: provide rest bite for families with terminally ill children by looking after the children. Web Meeting Point: is based in Armley and supports asylum seekers and refugees in Leeds. They are a small charity based at Christ Church Upper Armley. They work towards social integration and collaborate with organizations to provide support in health, employment, advice, family support, and food provision. Our mission also includes breaking down barriers and reducing negative stereotypes in the local community. Web MIND (Leeds) - Providing coaching and counselling to those struggling with their mental health whether that is helping them keep a job, gathering confidence and employment skills or providing help to those in crisis when the NHS cannot cope. So many little unknown projects and help. Invaluable. So many in the community have been helped. Web Motor Neurone Disease Association: MND is the short term for motor neurone disease, which affects the nerves known as motor neurones. These nerves are found in the brain and spinal cord and they help tell your muscles what to do. MND Association fund research into cures for MND and provide grants to help MND sufferers and their carers. Web Peeps HIE: Peeps is the only UK charity dedicated to supporting those affected by H.I.E. HIE stands for hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy. It is a lack of oxygen to the brain that can cause injury. Web Team Daniel: Raise awareness of mental health for young people, providing safe spaces and youth groups and revision support. Web Teenage Cancer Trust: Teenage Cancer Trust is the only UK charity providing specialised nursing care and support for young people with cancer. We’re here for anyone diagnosed with cancer aged 13-24, and their loved ones too. Web The Wren Bakery: A small charity based in Leeds supporting women who face multiple disadvantages back into employment through training in barista skills and baking. The Wren Bakery believes in second chances and sees the potential in every one of these women. They aim to empower and equip them to hope for a future, and give them the tools to obtain it. Web YourSpace: A community group which gives a space for families to meet and play together with other families in Allerton Bywater. Web Zero Waste Liverpool: They save food going to landfill and distribute it to build and support the community. Reducing waste going to landfill and supporting all in the community who need it. No judgement, helping the environment and the community. Volunteers use there own time and money to collect food near to disposal for redistribution to the community. Facebook
Every year the UK hosts just short of a thousand festivals. Of these five hundred are music festivals. The UK festival sector is a global leader, contributing £1.75 billion to the UK economy annually and supporting eight five thousand jobs. Annual attendance at festivals is around six and a half million people. In short, the UK festival scene is significant! Over the last fourteen years a growing number of Christian organisations have realised the potential for working alongside festival organisers to support these events, the staff and festival goers. Leading the way is Festival Angels! Since 2011 we have pioneered and gone above and beyond in our offer to festivals. We have teams, or have supported teams, to attend some of the UKs biggest festivals including Leeds, Parklife, Kendal Calling, Download, Creamfields and Latitude. Festival Angels are there to support the welfare of the festival goers and staff. Through practical ways such as safe hubs, lost property, detached teams (who are out and about across the festival site) and at Leeds a prayer cafe, we demonstrate, and show through banners, Gospels and tattoos, that Jesus Loves Festivals. Festival Angels has become a family of change makers who support one another, those attending and those working. Festival Angels offer a network of support and connection for groups such as Download Chaplains, Latitude Festival Pastors and the Methodist Church who are also working within the festival scene. Paul Blakey MBE, who heads up many of the Festival Angels teams, comments, "With the recent talk and research around a 'Quiet Revival' we have seen this evidenced at festivals over the last few years. "Young people queuing up for tattoos, reading and taking the Jesus Loves Festivals Gospels, asking serious questions and of course having a selfie with Jesus is commonplace. "Each year we connect with tens of thousands of people, many of them Gen Z. People often come to say thank you for the help we have given them or friends in past years or bring back the Festival Angels mug for a cuppa.  "Festival Angels are in a privileged place working and serving amazing people of all ages, for whom music festivals are a highlight of the year. At each event we are very much joining in with what Jesus is already doing away from our subcultured Christian world." New ventures for 2025 included supporting Accessibility customers at Kendal Calling with dozens of messages of thanks received on social media. In a romantic twist Festival Angels are celebrating an engagement with Jo Lynch and Bryn Wilson, who met whilst on team at Leeds Festival, becoming engaged whilst on the team under the globe at Kendal Calling.  Festival Angels are keen to support local church communities to set up teams around smaller festivals and events. Upton-upon-Severn Baptist Church and churches in Porthleven have Festival Angels teams each year which help the church connect and integrate with wider community events. With a handful of teams to run in 2025, including Leeds Festival, Darley Park Weekender, We Are Church at Creamfields and Street Pastors at Reading Festival, plans are beginning for future development. A one-off opportunity in 2027 will be the Grande Depart of one of the world's biggest sporting events. The Tour de France will be racing around Scotland, Wales and England in a three day spectacle with Festival Angels / ROC Angels joining forces with Sports Chaplaincy to speak to the organisers about how we can encourage the church and community to better engage along the routes. Festival Angels is a simple model with an aim of loving the person in front of you through practical help such as sun lotion, plasters and sanitary products. The team's proactive approach is demonstrating to festival goers and staff that Jesus really does love festivals and festival-goers. To find out more festivalangels.org.uk or @festivalangels on Facebook and TikTok and @festivalangels1 on Instagram.  Massive congratulations to Jo and Bryn who became engaged under the Kendal Calling globe! They met through Festival Angels at Leeds a few years ago! The engagement featured in an article on Kendal Calling in Cumbria Crack - read the article here (copied below): Bryn Wilson, 54, and Jo Lynch, 54, from Leeds and York, got engaged on Thursday beneath Kendal’s Lost Eden Earth while working as part of the Festival Angels team.
Bryn used a Haribo ring to propose and the pair plan to get a real ring later. Jo said while she normally likes to stay in the know of everything going on that Bryn succeeded in surprising her with the proposal. She said: “I thought he’s never going to catch me out with it, but he really did! “He got down on one knee with a Haribo ring, I think we’ve gone through a whole bag over the last four days!” The pair have volunteered for the organisation for around nine years covering Leeds fest but only properly crossed paths and started to speak to one another around three years ago. They really liked each other, but with various things going on in their lives, it wasn’t until the following year that they started to date. Bryn said: “It’s been an absolutely brilliant weekend because she said yes.” The pair have volunteered at Kendal Calling for the past two years and it means a lot to them, as it marks some of their first proper time spent together as a couple. Bryn said he planned in advance to propose at the festival as it has a friendly, calm and open atmosphere. Bryn said he was excited to propose to Jo and added: “I just want to spend the rest of my life with her.” Some of the Festival Angel team also threw the couple a little surprise celebration on their engagement with cake and prosecco handed out in their tent. The pair plan to return to Kendal Calling to volunteer again next year. |
