Action For Dementia At V Festival Weston Park Staffordshire!

V Festival Weston Park

Hi everybody

Approx. 250.000 people were expected across 2 parks in Chelmsford and Staffordshire, all the bands, artists, comedians etc. that played in Chelmsford on one day, came over to Staffordshire the next day and vice versa and shuttle busses moved the people between the parks.  We were at V North which is in Weston Park Staffordshire.

Everybody here was very excited,  it took a lot of preparation, and as we only had confirmation that we had got a space at the Festival about 4 weeks ago it was all go with prep for it, we had a motorhome to take the four of us, our stock and all the equipment and to sleep in.

We took our printed Action For Dementia, Big Lottery Funded Pro 40 Gazebo and our banners. Our very visible presence attracted a constant stream of interest, our Wristbands were sought after and many could be seen around the Festival with Action For Dementia t/shirts and Action For Dementia  Frisbees, which was fantastic, and we also showed off our  fair trade memory boxes and bags.  For an added attraction to our stall  Liam our Barber (trustee/volunteer) and Ste (friend & co-worker/volunteer) gave beard and  hair trims.  There were no leaflets given out, no plastic bags used, as there are strict rules about the conservation of the sites and the use of plastic.  We did however have a lot to talk about and a lot of information we could pass on to people who were interested, we were open from around 10.30am  up to 7-8pm in the evening, after 8pm people were getting ready for the headline acts, Saturday was Rhianna, Sunday was Justin Beiber ( 4 newBleibers created).  I am a little upset that i didn’t manage a celeb photo, after the James Martin Coup at Skipton Food&Drink Festival, I felt quite confident that i would be able to surprise some poor unsuspecting celebrity, but the security there was just to good.

We had a brilliant time at the Festival spoke to many many people of all ages, from 16-60yrs of age, all of whom had known someone or knew and cared for someone with Dementia.  We hope that all those people who engaged with us over the V weekend went away with more awareness and  understanding of Dementia, we also hope that those people who shed a tear and those who were directly involved with caring for a person living with Dementia left feeling happier just to have talked openly about it to someone when they least expected to.

We would like to send big Thank you’s to Sue Fielding and Dick Vernon for giving us the opportunity to be a part of 21st V Festival, hope were allowed back next year.

Lastly but certainly not least the Biggest Thank-You goes to the Big Lottery Fund For helping make this and all our other Dementia Awareness events possible, we really have engaged with a lot of people over the course of the last few months.