Frome Children’s Festival needs you!

THE Frome Children’s Festival is celebrating its tenth anniversary this summer, but the organisers behind the free family event, Purple Elephant, say they need help of the town in order to make it the best Children’s Festival yet.

The festival – dubbed the Biggest Free Family Celebration of the Year – will take place on Sunday 21st July and around 3,000 local people will enjoy a whole day taking part in over 30 fun, free activities, stretching from the Cheese and Grain, via the market car park, into Welshmill woods and the river walk, covering Welshmill Park and spanning the very River Frome itself with zipwires!

Funding for this event has previously come from many sources but, in the current climate, there simply isn’t enough to go round for all the UK’s charities, so the organisers are asking the people and businesses of Frome and the local area to help make the tenth anniversary of Frome Children’s Festival the most exciting, inclusive and fun celebration in a decade.

Founder of the first ever Frome Children’s Festival, Sue Willis, said, “Purple Elephant is lucky to have funding for our year-round vulnerable family and child support services, but the Children’s Festival is a bit different. It is a one-off, huge, annual event that is open to everyone, regardless of their needs. It’s about integration in the town, community spirit and fun.

“As many activities as possible are accessible to those with additional needs and we include local student ‘young producers’ in designing it, as well as mentoring young volunteers too. We are reaching out to our local community to donate to our LocalGiving campaign and to businesses to become our major sponsors, to make sure that this year’s event happens at the exciting scale that wonderful Frome people deserve.”

Previous Children’s Festival highlights have included performances from Rocktapus, Noisy Oyster, Open Storytellers, Frome Street Bandits, Les Enfants Terribles, Jellyfish Theatre caravan and Little Bulb. Onsite support workers are available if needed, signing for the hard of hearing is provided during performances and activities have included wheelchair basketball from Nova Sports and Coaching, accessible inclusive dance from Flamingo Chicks and an adapted harness to make rides-for-all on the zip-wire.

With a wealth of choices each year, the festival has also previously offered the opportunity to make music in a professional studio, take part in greenscreen special effects filming, join creative and learning sessions with The Pod and Shared Earth Learning and to join wonderful drop-in model-making workshops from Aardman.

Sponsors welcome

Businesses in the area are invited to become the major sponsors for this all-town event. Individuals are invited to make donations directly to the organisation’s Local Giving page.

As Sue Willis explains, “In a town of this size, it is great for a local business to reach its own community so directly and be part of something that brings such joy to so many. Indeed, we know that money is so short for some families that our Children’s Festival directly takes the place of traditional summer holiday trips and days out. Please join us in bringing as much sunshine as we can to the town this year.”

Businesses interested in becoming the Frome Children’s Festival 2024 sponsor, or if you think the company you work for would like to know more, get in touch on info@PurpleElephant.org.uk

To support this fabulous day with your own kind donation, visit the LocalGiving page https://localgiving .org/childrensfestival2024 or to website www.PurpleElephant.org.uk