A team of volunteers in Peasedown St John have been recognised for their efforts at a special award ceremony at Bath’s Guildhall.
Peasedown’s Party in the Park festival team has raised almost £50,000 over the last five years, all of which has been or will be reinvested back into the local community.
Jo Davis, the festival’s Volunteer Manager said: “It was an honour to be recognised and thanked by the chairman of B&NES Council last week at the annual Community Awards. The Party in the Park team works hard all year round to ensure that residents have a summer spectacular to look forward to.
“Our dedicated team are committed to our village, and always want to try new things to make each annual festival bigger and better.”
In October 2008, during one late afternoon at Peasedown Youth Centre, the first ever Party in the Park meeting was held.
Brought together by Cllr Nathan Hartley, those present included representatives from groups that had hosted events before, and a collection of brand new people who wanted to get ‘stuck in’.
From the early beginnings of pulling together ideas on a large sheet of flip chart paper the Peasedown Party in the Park brand was born.
The first event, pitched as a grand family fun day, was opened in 2009 by Glastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis and held in the new location of Beacon Field. With a small stage for musical performances and around 1,500 people attending, this was a great start to a string of successful festivals.
Now, six years on, Peasedown’s Party in the Park festival has become one of the most popular in the district, with up to 3,000 visitors and more than £6,000 being secured each year to fund the event.
As well as the summer event, the team run a volunteer scheme which gives those that take part the chance to receive a reference for education or employment. Called ‘Be Part of It, more than 50 volunteers take part every year to ensure the seven-hour extravaganza runs smoothly.
They also run a Grant Fund which supports Peasedown-based projects; Christmas in the Park, and a community award in memory of the late Sara Holley; and they have launched their own exclusive cider – Peasedown Diamond.
At the end of 2013, the team calculated the total amount secured from events which came to a massive £48,290. An achievement never seen before by a community group in Peasedown St John in a short space of time.
Craig Gill is the Party in the Park webmaster and literature designer, and is now working on his third festival.
He commented: “Much of this money is reinvested back into the summer festival, and a sum is set aside to give back to the community in the form of small grants.
“Since 2009 organisations such as Laurel Farm, the Children’s Centre, Peasedown Methodist Church, Peasedown Youth Albion FC and the Beacon Hall lunch club have benefitted from receiving a Party in the Park grant.”
On the 2014 festival team, Jo and Craig are joined by Joy Fraser, Danny Brothers, Karen Walker, Cat Savage, Mike Auton and Nathan Hartley.
