Beacon Festival raises over £10,000 for charity

BACK in June, Beacon Festival opened its gates for a fun packed weekend of live music, comedy, poetry, zorbing, eating and drinking, fun for the younger ones and wellbeing activities.

The festival was founded as a not for profit event to support local charities and good causes and this year the festival is supporting First Steps Family Hub, Thames Valley Air Ambulance, The Treehouse School and Footsteps Foundation. Because the festival had its largest ever attendance with over 3,500 people visiting over the weekend, the festival is able to donate a record £2,500 to each beneficiary, along with match funding the Watlington Primary School PTA breakfast sales. The success of the festival also meant additional donations could be made to the Watlington Scouts and St Leonard’s Church.

‘Thank you’

Ruth Dunkin, Head of Community and Events at Thames Valley Air Ambulance said: “We are so grateful for the support from Beacon Festival and it was a real pleasure to be involved for the first time this year. It was fabulous to be able to speak to the festival goers about our work, and it is also extra special to meet people who have been personally touched by our service.”

Maggie Davies, Foundation Manager at the Footsteps Foundation, said: “With £2,500, we will be able to provide 50 hours of specialist therapy for disabled children in need. Over the course of 50 hours, children will expect to improve their strength and motor skills significantly!”

The festival organisers say they would like to thank all the local people who supported the festival, its sponsors and the volunteers without whose help, the festival could not go ahead.

“We received an amazing amount of fantastic feedback from people attending this year’s event and some amazing photographs,” said a festival spokesperson. “We also had some feedback regarding the timings of some of our bands which we will take on board for next year. As well this, we will be investing in further toilets for the event as we know this too was often referred to when people were discussing the event. The team are already planning 2019 and we hope to continue improving the festival.”

Next year’s festival

Beacon Festival is back on June 21 and 22, 2019, and tickets are now available on the website. When the tickets were first released, 10% of the capacity sold within 24 hours and they have continued to sell well since June. It has also been confirmed that the festival will continue with under 16’s getting in to the event free in 2019.

“We believe in 2018 we may well have reached the capacity for keeping the festival vibe without getting too big,” continued the spokespers. “So we are expecting that this year we might sell out before the event as we limit the capacity. Therefore we do encourage you to buy early, to avoid disappointment and during September you can buy at 2018 prices.

Get involved

“The festival is also taking applications for next year’s beneficiaries, so if you know of any local good causes that could benefit from working with us during 2019 and receiving a donation, please submit your application by visiting www.Beaconfestival.net.

“If you are reading this and are thinking you might want to get involved in organising the event, or simply giving some time of over the festival weekend, then please do contact us through the volunteers section of our website https://www.beaconfestival.net/
To find out more about this year’s beneficiaries please visit:

www.firststepshub.org.uk
www.tvairambulance.org.uk
www.thetreehouseschool.org.uk
www.footstepscentre.com