HOME FARM FEST 2016: School in a Bag chief thanks everyone who helps to make festival such a huge success

HOME Farm Fest, the charity music festival held in Chilthorne Domer and the biggest annual fundraiser for the charity School in a Bag, has once again smashed its previous year’s fundraising total coming in at just over £60,000!

Last year’s festival raised £46,666, an enormous leap from 2014’s £27,418, therefore rising over £32,500 in just two years – and it has now raised a total of over a quarter of a million pounds in its 11-year history.

PHOTO - TOP and RIGHT: All smiles at Home Farm Fest earlier this month  from some of the festival's key people.

This year the festival organisers decided to make a few changes to the layout and introduce a fifth stage which all worked very well, allowing a bigger spread of people over the festival site. The England v Russia Euros football match was also shown on the big screen, cream teas were served amongst a plethora of Union flags and red, white and blue décor in the Tea Tent – where many of the ladies serving even wore tiaras, to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday, and the festival had its first silent disco and dodgems. Definitely a bumper year in more ways than one!

These changes, plus the continuation of more and more people coming back each year and bringing new people with them, has seen a rise in numbers by nearly 1,000 people in the past two years. With the new stage, there were also 96 performances over the three days compared to 71 last year which is almost a 25% rise on the amount of music and other acts on offer.

PHOTO - RIGHT: One fest-goer is all smiles getting snapped with Larry Turner - lead signer of local rock band Snakebyte.

Luke Simon, founder and chief executive officer of School in a Bag and Home Farm Fest organiser, said: “This year took us by surprise once again! Our ticket sales far exceeded any previous year in the lead-up to the festival and we couldn’t believe just how far some people are travelling for it now as it used to be very much a locals thing.

“There was a big Cornish contingency and having spoken to one man to ask how he’d heard about Home Farm Fest, he said he’d found it after searching for family festivals on the web, come across us and will definitely be back next year, which is great!”

Luke added: “With the festival getting bigger, it means relying on more and more volunteers and we are so lucky to have such a brilliant team who help from setting everything up, being here over the festival weekend and then helping tidy up afterwards.

“We’re only a small team who run the charity and organise the festival, so we are truly grateful for all the help we receive."

PHOTO - RIGHT: What can you say?

Luke added: “Once again I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helps, from all the bands who play for free, the sound engineers and stage managers, Play Art who give up their time to help entertain all the children, and the huge number of volunteers as all this effort amounts to thousands being raised for School in a Bag.”

Planning for Home Farm Fest 12 is already underway and although there won’t be big changes like there were this year, it is hoped that the upward trend will still continue in the forthcoming years. For now though, School in a Bag is able to prosper from the gain and put it towards helping even more children gain an education through its SchoolBag initiative.

PHOTO - ABOVE: The Mayor, Cllr Darren Shutler (centre), and Mayoress, Anna Shutler, with Yeovil Press' Steve Sowden who help to support the Lloyd Lounge stage at Home Farm Fest.

Photos from this year’s festival can be found on the links below.

Gallery 1: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/11/home-farm-fest-2016-day-1-pt-1-june-10-2016/ .

Gallery 2: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/11/home-farm-fest-2016-day-1-pt-2-june-10-2016/ .

Gallery 3: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/12/home-farm-fest-2016-day-2-pt-1-june-11-2016-2/ .

Gallery 4: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/12/home-farm-fest-2016-day-2-pt-2-june-11-2016/ .

Gallery 5: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/12/home-farm-fest-2016-day-3-pt-1-june-12-2016/ .

Gallery 6: http://www.yeovilpress.co.uk/blog/2016/06/12/home-farm-fest-2016-day-3-pt-2-june-12-2016/ .

Tags:
Leisure.