Members of the community in Frome joined in with the Glastonbury Festival celebrations last week, making charitable and musical contributions at the world-renowned event.
Among the festival-goers from the town were musician Leander Morales, who played a surprise set; members from Frome charities The Pod Charity and We Hear You (WHY) who continued their fundraising efforts at the festival; and Frome company Celestial which opened the festival with a spectacular drone show.
Although not originally scheduled to perform, songwriter Leander Morales stepped in last minute to perform in the Permaculture area within the Green Futures Field. “I feel absolutely honoured to have the opportunity to perform,” he said. “It’s always mind-blowing to see the hundreds of stages, the thousands of artists, crew, and performers, everyone pulling together to maintain and sustain what is known as one of the world’s greatest festivals of performing arts. I really enjoyed it.”
Members of The Pod Charity, which supports young people and adults with additional needs, volunteered for the first time at the festival after the organisers invited them to take part.
“It has been absolutely epic,” explained charity manager and founder, Sue Paxton. “We have been doing crowd marshalling, which is a new initiative at the festival and involves us directing members of the public. It went really well.”
A member of Frome Town Council and Frome Rotary also joined the volunteer team. “It is a great opportunity to bring all these people together but also for us to raise funds for the work that we do,” said Sue.
Fundraising efforts were continued on-site with WHY ambassador Rachel Clark, who is undertaking a mile-a-day in 2024 challenge. Rachel and a team for WHY completed a mile at the festival site.
“We had a blast running through the theatre and cabaret area, through the markets and on to the Pyramid arena and ended at the cider bus!” they said.
On the Sunday morning, 30th June, those who were fortunate enough to have day tickets, available to Frome residents, queued in the Market Place to board buses to the site. Residents joined 200,000 others to enjoy performances including Shania Twain, Avril Lavigne and the headline act, SZA.
