46 Festival Angels ran 4 Safe / Info Hubs at Download Festival. The team covered from Wednesday 8am until Monday at 1pm. Hundreds of people received help, support and information from the team including around 100 conversations or support around mental health. Festival Angels joined with the Download Chaplains for a Sunday morning communion service. The team were given ducks (one of the symbols of Download) and friendship bracelets in thanks for the help they gave.
Parklife Angels spent two days helping and supporting those at Manchester's Parklife Festival through running three Safe Hubs. The team helped and supported hundreds of people including using gaffa tape to make shoes wearable again!
Each year Festival Angels give away hundreds of sanitary products at festivals. This year we have partnered with four Year 9 pupils who have developed StreetFlow, a period pack that is available to those who are homeless which includes longer lasting period products. To find out more or to donate (maybe in thanks for the sanitary products Festival Angels make available at festivals) visit streetangels.org.uk/streetflow
This is #VolunteersWeek - thank you to our amazing Festival Angels family who go above and beyond to serve at music festivals across the UK. THANK YOU
#LoveThePersonInFrontOfYou
Parklife Festival Angels are once again making an appearance at the Heaton Park Festival which this year celebrates its fifteenth anniversary.
Parklife, which runs Saturday 14th and Sunday 15th June, is a mix of dance, electronic, hip-hop, and pop music, attracting over 100,000 attendees across the two days. Parklife Festival Angels are needed to run three safe spaces across the festival site on both Saturday and Sunday. Rev. Sarah Fletcher, rector at St Thomas with St Mark, Lower Crumpsall and Trinity United, Cheetham, says "I have joined the Parklife Festival Angels team for the last two years and had an amazing experience. It is a great opportunity to serve one of Manchester's largest music festivals and offer safe spaces to the tens of thousands of young people who attend." In 2024 Parklife Festival Angels gave away thousands of plasters, wet wipes, sanitary products, tissues, foil blankets, lollipops and sweets to festival-goers who needed a supporting hand. The team also found that duct tape came in handy to repair several pairs of broken shoes. Debra Green OBE, the founder CEO of Redeeming Our Communities who organise Festival Angels, comments, "Parklife is a significant event for thousands of young people in our city and beyond. The Parklife Festival Angels will be on hand, alongside welfare, security, first aid and others, to ensure that should someone need support they can easily find it." In addition to support inside the festival, neighbouring Heaton Park Methodist Church offers Parklife Sanctuary for those arriving and leaving the Parklife site. This safe space, open Saturday and Sunday 10am - 3am, offers tea, coffee and cake alongside a place to find friends, wait for parents or a taxi, recover from having consumed too much of something, charge phones or for a listening ear. Sign-up and more information on Parklife Angels is available at festivalangels.org.uk/parklife Festival Angels worked at over 60 festivals and events in 2024 investing at least 16,000 volunteer hours into events such as Download, Kendal Calling, Creamfields and Leeds Festival. The CEO of ROC Angels, Paul Blakey, spoke about the work of Festival Angels at a ChurchWorks reception in the Houses of Parliament. The host MP for Shipley, Anna Dixon, is the sister of one of our regular Leeds Festival Angels. The day was looking at how the church and government can work better together with Paul speaking about Festival Angels alongside Street Angels and a Halifax initiative Chilli Tuesday.
Festival Angels were involved in stewarding a community event, 'This Landscape Is Ours' in Halifax in February. This was organised by IOU Theatre (one of the team was a Festival Angel in 2024) and part of CultureDale events. The team helped steward 10 guided walks around Halifax town centre with projections, sound and light shows.
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