Visitors to this year’s Shrewsbury Folk Festival helped to raise nearly £9,000 to fund music therapy for its charity partner, Hope House Children’s Hospice.
Hope House, which supports children with life threatening illnesses and their families, totted up £8,834 from this year’s four-day music festival over August Bank Holiday, which included a donation from festival organisers for every adult weekend ticket that was sold.
The cash will be used to fund music therapy sessions at the hospice. Since the partnership between the two organisations began in 2008, a total of £81,125 has been raised.
Volunteers raised £3,573 through the Hope House stall at the festival and the annual bucket collection resulted more than £2,842. Money was also raised through the charging of mobile phones and other electrical devices as well as collecting tins around the festival site.
Festival Director Sandra Surtees said she was delighted with this year’s total, which was a record breaking amount. “It’s obviously been very hard for Hope House over the last 18 months to raise the millions it needs to operate every year. We know how important music therapy can be for children to help them communicate, especially those who are non-verbal, so it feels good to know our love of music is helping to fund such a valuable service.
“Even though we didn’t have a festival last year, we did make a donation from the online festival we organised so we have given an uninterrupted 13 years of support to Hope House. Our festivalgoers are so generous and we’re now looking to smash that £100,000 target in the next few years!”
Hope House Fundraising Team Leader Lynsey Kilvert said the festival’s donation could not have come as a better time for the hospice.
“We are thrilled and delighted to have the support of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival once again,” she said. “We pledged to remain open to support seriously ill local children and their families during the pandemic, but obviously our fundraising suffered because we could not hold events and our shops were closed. More than 85% of our running costs come from fundraising and donations, so this incredible boost to our funds could not have come at a better time.
“We really enjoyed being involved in the 2021 festival. The atmosphere was as incredible as ever, and everyone was so friendly and glad to be back. Our volunteers had a super time manning our stall and collecting in the crowds and we can’t wait to be involved again next year.”
Tickets for the 2022 festival, which will take place at the West Midland Showground in Berwick Road from August 26th to 29th, go on sale on December 1 at www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk.
Pictured. Visitors to this year’s Shrewsbury Folk Festival donated a record breaking amount to Hope House for its music therapy service. Credit – Steve Oliver
