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 :-) Festival Angels are heading to Download Festival at Donington Park in June.
The teams of volunteers will be running Information Hubs based on campsites for the duration of the festival which runs from Wednesday 7th June through to Monday 12th June. Download Festival is an annual mammoth five day rock event and will include acts such as Metallica, Evanescence and Slipknot. Festival Angels is a Christian organisation who work at several major UK music festivals including Leeds Festival, Kendal Calling and Creamfields. Paul Blakey MBE, the founder of Street Angels and coordinator of Download Festival Angels, says, "This is our first year at Download which is the UK's biggest rock and metal festival attracting ninety five thousand festival goers. Festival Angels will be running two Information Hubs in camp site areas offering practical support and assistance. This is a great opportunity for the church to be visible at this major event and show that Jesus Loves Festivals." To sign up as a volunteer visit festivalangels.org.uk/download. Volunteers need to be aged 18+ and commit to 20 hours of volunteering over the 6 days. The clocks are changing, the weather is warming up which can only mean that FESTIVAL SEASON IS GETTING NEARER! Behind the scenes a lot of planning is taking place as we recruit, take references, plan, organise and coordinate the several Festival Angel teams. To keep everyone in the loop we thought a regular update would be good - so here is the first! Our first festival of the season is Porthleven Food Festival Festival Angels. This is in the Cornish coastal town and runs 21st - 23rd April. More details are in this video... Staying in Cornwall a local team will be at Tunes in the Dunes from 12th - 14th May. In Upton-upon-Severn Festival Angels teams will be out and about at a whole range of festivals from folk to jazz, blues to pop. These weekend events attract up to 30,000 people to this small town and Festival Angels will be running a cafe in Upton Baptist Church as well as detached teams out and about across Upton centre. If you would like to join the Upton team visit here. New festivals this year include Creamfields South where Paul Carr, rector in Billericay, is aiming to have a team over Spring Bank Holiday weekend. Contact us for more details. The next new Festival is the metal / rock Download which takes place 7th - 12th June in Castle Donnington. At Download we will be running the Information Hub based on one of the campsites. To join this team visit festivalangels.org.uk/download. A training night will be planned for May. The same weekend as Download is Parklife in Heaton Park, Manchester. We are currently working with Parklife to run safe place cabins across the site. More information soon! Next up are fourteen June and July gigs at Piece Hall Halifax. With acts such as Madness, Rag and Bone Man, James, Hozier and Sting the gigs will run in evenings. We have 45 volunteers signed up and so are currently at capacity. We will be sending out the rotas soon and setting up a training evening. Kendal Calling has become a favourite in the Festival Angels calendar. Running 27th - 30th July in Lowther Deer Park, Penrith the team will be running a Safe Space at the intersection of several campsites alongside detached teams out and about across the festival site. We have 49 volunteers signed up so again are at capacity! Next up we are supporting Creationfest, a free Christian festival in Cornwall, to recruit volunteers for stewarding, etc. You can find out more and sign up by clicking here. At the end of August, around the Bank Holiday, we have teams at both Leeds Festival and Creamfields North (and the Upton Sunshine Festival and Street Pastors at Reading). The team We Are Church at Creamfields handed out at least 2800 jammy dodgers along with litres of water. The team are expanding the work they do each year, follow them at www.facebook.com/wearethechurch3 Leeds Festival, our biggest Festival Angels team with at least 170 volunteers, happens from 23rd - 28th August. Teams will be running a Prayer Cafe, Lost Property, Detached and the Chariot serving cuppas to security staff at night. We are currently on 110 volunteers and so if you plan to be at Leeds sign up soon at leedsfestivalangels.org.uk/volunteer . You can find out more about what we do at Leeds in this video (and please share the video on your social media to help attract more volunteers - https://youtu.be/ZeQxJlYk2Xc ) We are working with other areas to help teams run Festival Angels at smaller festivals including in North Wales. Street Angel teams will also be joining together across regions and with other organisations to run at Festival Angels style teams at events such as Royal Ascot. ROC Angels can help and provide resources if you want to do this in your locality - get in touch with us!
You may want to pray for Festival Angels - click here for a prayer that was on UCB radio in December. You can join the Facebook group and follow us on social media (we are @festivalangels on FB, TikTok, Twitter and @festivalangels1 on Insta). Thank you to those who have signed up to volunteer! Thank you to those who are busy working behind the scenes. More information will be out soon from each of the different festival teams. |