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Festival Angels have had a busy June with teams at Download in Castle Donington, Parklife in Manchester and promoting the amazing work of The Church at Glastonbury. Thanks to all who have volunteered at these events - going above and beyond in some extreme weather (from temperatures in the 30's to torrential rain, thunder and lightning!) We have had some great feedback from festival organisers around the professionalism, engagement and fun that our volunteers bring to a festival. Read more about Download here (top picture) Read more about Parklife here (middle picture) Check out The Church at Glastonbury Facebook Group (bottom picture)    July sees a team at Kendal Calling in the Lake District. A team of nearly 50 volunteers will be out and about in the fields offering a safe space and detached teams. This is our fourth year at Kendal Calling. A new Festival Angels team will be Yarty Party in Axminster, Devon this coming weekend (21st and 22nd July). The team of 8 from the Baptist Church Kilmington and The Life Community in Axminster will be out on Friday and Saturday from 6pm until late.  Paul chatted to Sarah from ROC (the charity Festival Angels is part of) about the work at Download and Parklife - click here to watch the reel. You can watch several videos of Festival Angels in action, the dedication given to the placing of the Jesus Loves Festivals tattoos, the Parklife Angels rain storm party tent and some volunteer feedback on our TikTok channel - click here.
Emma - emma@ourhouseyourhouse.org - was one of the volunteers at Parklife Festival Angels and has sent the below message - if anyone can help on 13th August please let Emma know and then we can get a team together: I run an initiative called Our House Your House - which is all about promoting good mental health and well-being through House Music. www.ourhouseyourhouse.org https://linktr.ee/ourhouseyourhouse I was wondering if Festival Angels could help with something I am organising? On the 13th August from 11am at Joshua Brooks, Manchester (106 Princess St, Manchester M1 6NG) we are running the Guinness World Record Attempt for the most amount of DJs going B2B! It is to raise money for Mind, and so we have hosting several wellbeing stands during the day. I wondered if Festival Angels could be there to run a stand and talk to people about what they do. We have others - meditation, hypnotherapy, musician wellbeing stands etc, and I thought it would be good if we could have a Christian stand there in the mix. The event is from 11am at Joshua Brooks in Manchester. If you can help please Emma know!  The 2023 Festival Angels season comes to an end in August with our biggest weekend! Over 200 Festival Angels will be at Leeds Festival; We Are The Church @ Creamfields in Cheshire; Festival Angels at the Upton-upon-Severn Sunshine Festival; Street Pastors are at Reading Festival. We are likely to be looking for more volunteers to staff a third AIR Hub at Leeds - if this is you please register at leedsfestivalangels.org.uk/volunteer (sign up to Festival Angels as an Organisation and we will add you to Leeds as an Opportunity) or email us if you are already registered on the InitLive system! To register your interest for We Are The Church @ Creamfields please email the Creamfields team . If you are near Upton-upon-Severn then the Festival Angels team is always looking for new volunteers - email Upton Baptist Church for more details.
Twenty five Parklife Festival Angels were on running four safe spaces over the weekend of Parklife in Heaton Park Manchester.
The team were on hand to ensure festival goers had a safe and fun time and were offering sun tan lotion, plasters, drink spiking kits, lollipops and ponchos and shelter when torrential rain and thunder storms interrupted the sun on Sunday afternoon! The team even repaired several pairs of shoes! The Parklife Festival manager commented, "I was so impressed with the team, they are definitely a credit to the organisation"
Festival Angels were at Download in Castle Donington for the first time running two of the new AIR Hubs. Download is an annual festival with heavy metal and rock and this year celebrated 20 years with record crowds of 95,000.
AIR (Assistance, Information, Response) Hubs were based on the camp sites with Festival Angels running the two on Green / Eco camping. Over the six days of the Festival, where temperatures were around 30c, thirty-six volunteers were on hand to: help people find space to camp; put up tents; seek assistance from other agencies working across the festival site; offer a space of shade and to sit down; be a friendly and welcoming space on the camp site with water, plasters, wet wipes, sanitary products and sun tan lotion. Around 1000 Jesus Loves Festivals and several thousand #LookOutForEachOther tattoos were given away over the week. The Jesus Loves Festivals ones proved very popular with some requesting prayer or having in depth conversations around Jesus and faith. Festival Angels also connected with the Chaplaincy team working in the Main Arena who were on hand to offer a listening ear and friendly space both in the tent and through detached teams across the site. The Chaplains ran a Communion Service for the first time on the Sunday morning.
We are now three festivals in to the 2023 season! We have had Festival Angels teams at:
Porthleven Food Festival Upton-upon-Severn Folk Festival Tunes in the Dunes Click each one to read the reports and see more pictures... Thanks to all who have served at each of these festivals. 
Our next Festival Angels teams will be at Download and Parklife.
At Download (7th - 12th June) we are staffing at least two of the Information hubs - we are currently on 40 volunteers and are looking for 50 to staff two of the hubs or 75 to staff three! More information and sign-up via festivalangels.org.uk/download At Parklife (10th and 11th June) we are running safe place cabins. Saturday is now full but we still have a few spaces for the Sunday. More details and sign-up at festivalangels.org.uk/parklife For those signed up to these festivals we will be sending out full details after the Spring Bank Holiday weekend.
Did you know that Festival Angels was the vision of a 79 year old lady Kate Dickinson! Sadly Kate passed away recently. Her daughter in law Jeanne, who was a Leeds Festival Angel last year, writes:
"At the age of 79 Kate got permission to set up a “Prayer Tent” at Leeds Festival, a personal initiative which then developed into Festival Angels and now touches the lives of thousands. We’ve all loved and appreciated her and will miss you so much Kate Dickinson, our amazing “Festival Angel” " Kate has left a legacy that is continuing to grow and develop at festivals across the UK and beyond. Thank you Kate and love and prayers for her family at this time. 
21st - 25th June is one of the most famous festivals of all - Glastonbury! We have made links with The Church @ Glastonbury Festival who are based opposite the Pyramid Stage offering: Safe Space and Shelter, Prayer, Creativity and Sanctuary. Please pray for this team of volunteers.
The Upton-upon-Severn Festival Angels were inspired by the various Morris Dancing groups to look at setting up a Festival Angels Border Morris group to perform at the 2024 Upton Folk Festival - here is a TikTok of them learning the moves!
Leeds Festival Angels is currently full! People signing-up are to be added to a Waiting List - it is worth joining as we do tend to have several drop-out's nearer the festival and there is something in the pipeline which if it comes off will increase our presence on the site and will create more places! leedsfestivalangels.org.uk/volunteer
Creamfields North is happening the same weekend (August Bank Holiday) where the We Are Church at Creamfields team will be offering pastoral help and support to Festival goers. More information is on the Facebook page or access the sign-up form here. 
For Festival Angel volunteers we have a Facebook group where you can ask questions, share ideas and news, etc - join here. Thank you to all who are part of the amazing Festival Angels family!
Pirans Angels were out and about around Tunes In The Dunes festival which takes place each year on the beach in Perranporth.    
A team from Upton-upon-Severn Baptist Church became Festival Angels at the Upton Folk Festival over the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. The team were on patrol in the town as well as running a Shared Front Room with free drinks and wifi.
The team also made plans to set up the Festival Angels Border Morris dance group - watch this space (and the practice dance TikTok below!)
Cath Horne, Pioneer Minister with the South West Baptist Association, led the Porthleven Food Festival Angels team. Here is Cath's report from the weekend: We had a team of 22 people overall with 10 folks on each shift at either 12-6pm or 6pm-1am aged from 18-80. We had some great opportunities to talk to people as well as to pray with people including one of the traders who had spilt boiling fat on his leg who let us pray with him, and others who had various medical or life issues. As the evenings went on we were able to help those who had got into a mess and because we were located in the bus stop were able to make hot drinks for and chat with hundreds of people each night. We were also able to bless the security and other teams with hot drinks and sweets throughout the night giving us great opportunities to chat and share. The Mayor came to personally thank us and I am meeting with him this week to talk about how the festival can be even better at helping people. Stall holders, local shops and the local people were so grateful to the team and showed us lots of love and are desperate for us to come back again next year. I was interviewed for local radio and able to talk about what we were doing and why. Our presence changed the atmosphere and God was able to work in ways that were seen and unseen. It was such a privilege to be part of God at work – the whole team were amazing and we loved it!
Our summer season kicks off this weekend with the Porthleven Food Festival Angels team in Cornwall. We will post pictures on our socials - facebook.com/festivalangels and instagram.com/festivalangels1
We now have an incredible just over 300 volunteer spaces filled across all of our Festival Angels teams in 2023. Thank you to each and every person who has signed up to volunteer - welcome to the Festival Angels family! 
Parklife is go! Parklife runs Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th June 2023 at Heaton Park, Manchester. Festival Angels will be running four cabins between 10.30am and 11pm on Saturday and 11am and 11pm on Sunday. The cabins will offer a safe and friendly space for festival-goers with various items (lolly pops, sanitary products, etc) available to hand out. Each cabin will be staffed by four Festival Angels and you will be asked to work for the full 12.5 hours (with breaks). We require 16 Festival Angels on each day with 3 spaces remaining for Saturday and 9 spaces remaining for Sunday. Sign up at festivalangels.org.uk/parklife
Festival Angels are now running 2 information hubs at Download Festival and we have made connections with the Chaplaincy team who run a Chaplaincy space on site. For more information and to sign up click here.
A slightly mad Sunday afternoon conversation at Kendal Calling last year led to the idea of Jesus Loves Festivals tattoos. Fast forward a few days and 1000 temporary tattoos were ordered for Leeds! Festival-goers loved them and we even managed to tat up some of the reluctant Festival Angels - we sold around 900 at £1 each! This year they are back with 2500 on order for Leeds Festival and 2500 for some of our other festivals. We also have some Jesus Loves Festivals fridge magnets (because why not!)
Moira Conlon has been Director of Leeds Festival Angels for the past couple of years and is now standing down.
Nic Sheppard, Chair of the Leeds Festival Angels Steering Group, says: “We are indebted for all that Moira has brought to the role of Director and the many many hours she has put into ensuring that Leeds Festival Angels have the best possible volunteering experience. We will continue to benefit from many of the ideas and developments she established – not least, hot showers for those on the Festival Angel campsite!" 
Festival Angels merch - well hoodies, fleeces, sweatshirts! We will be putting in an initial order for these (each with an embroided Festival Angels logo) on 26th April. Please use this form to order!
If you think you are signed up to Leeds or Download please double check! On InitLive you need to have opted in to the Opportunity - these will show at the bottom of the Festival Angels organisation page - you click on the festival (Leeds/Download) to opt in. So go check now - go on, go on, go on, go on....
If you are volunteering this year be sure to add yourself to our Facebook group - a space for questions, ideas, banter, etc - click here! Kendal Calling and the Piece Hall gigs are now full. Volunteers are still needed at: Upton-upon-Severn various festivals; Download; Parklife; Creationfest; Leeds Festival; Creamfields North. Please be patient with us (a very small part time part paid part volunteer team running Festival Angels in and amongst) in getting back to you - each application needs to be checked, referenced and then accepted. We are: working on rotas for multiple festivals; liaising with festival organisers; sorting out practical resources such as t-shirts, tabards, supplies, etc; working through dynamics of running several festival teams; looking at policies, risk assessments, safeguarding, etc..... Thanks :-)
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