THE free to attend Holsworthy Food, Drink and Music Festival certainly helped fulfil its aim to ‘bring the community back together’.

Despite some negative comments the members of Holsworthy Mutual Aid — Mother Elizabeth Burke, Nigel Kenneally and Jon Hutchings ­— who hosted the event were pleased with their achievements.

The event was held as a way of thanking the community for their hard work keeping everyone safe during the pandemic was a huge success — bringing local businesses and musicians together for a festival-style weekend.

Jon said: “It was a great event that took a lot of planning, but we wanted to bring the community back together and I think we did that.

“The key worker and essential worker thank you party went really well and on the Saturday we at one point considered stopping letting people in because it was so busy.”

Jon said there were times when the team felt like everything was against them with a few bands dropping out at the last minute and the impending storms, but they worked together and were able to pull of a great community event.

Jon said: “We had an amber weather warning ahead of the event and the site looked like a hurricane had hit just days before but we stayed up until 3am in the morning getting things sorted and making sure everything was secured down — and we made it!

“We have had some really good feedback and a lot were surprised at how much of it was free.”

One local resident said: “We enjoyed the live music, even though some of the bands were a bit hit and miss. My kids loved the free use of the inflatables and the rides and had great fun dancing. They all had a go at things in the Creative Church Tent and loved bumping into their friends from school during the school holidays. My daughter and youngest daughter were asleep by 9.30pm and slept through the music and fireworks, as did all three of my dogs, including my nine-week old puppy. My oldest daughter loved staying up for the fireworks, which were absolutely awesome considering they only lasted two and a half minutes each night.

“We were really impressed by the fact that we heard no noise after 11pm and nothing before 11am. It meant that the kids were able to get plenty of rest to be able to enjoy Saturday’s festivities to the fullest.

“What I’m trying to say is that not everybody on the estates thought it was “too loud”, “too close” or “disappointing”. Some of us thought that it was a brilliant and wonderful thing for you all to do for the residents of Holsworthy.

“So, thank you and all your team for the festival. It was a brilliant celebration to be part of after a challenging 18 months.”

There was a huge variety of family events held throughout the weekend, with many joining the fun in the Creative Church tent, led by Mother Burke.

She said: “The aim of the festival was to bring the community back together and to thank key and essential workers. It was wonderful to see hundreds of people enjoying being together after such a long time of separation. Holsworthy Benefice ran Creative Church during the Saturday. The children loved all the crafts about food and drink in our scriptures!”

To round off the weekend a ‘Songs of Praise’ style service was held on the Sunday, led by Bishop Robert the Bishop of Exeter.

Mother Burke said: “Nearly 20 churches came together to worship and sing for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The songs of praise style service came at the end of a Food, Drinks and Music Festival run by Holsworthy Mutual Aid. Bishop Robert, the Bishop of Exeter preached about Jesus’ first miracle changing water into wine at a wedding in Cana. He started his sermon by saying how important it is to remember that Jesus’s first miracle was at a party.”

Thanks were expressed to all who helped make the event a success. Mother Burke added: “Thank you to the volunteers that helped set up and clear down afterwards, especially thought who came out at 3am to secure the stage in the storm. The three of us organised it but Jon Hutchings made it happen. It was a week of hard work but it was worth it to see so many people having such a great time after such a difficult time.”