We smashed it, Southbourne Revival was an outright success!

After the Shake and Stir organisers said they were postponing their summer event, we spent a week deliberating and then finally announced to the public that we were going to do something.

That left 12 weeks, three months to get it done! Well, for Tony Hughes to get it done as he was the absolute driving force in booking the acts, handling traders, getting design done and even hand drawing the signs to be used during the event. This was all whilst he was doing his day job as well. I was just the mouth piece on Social Media, and the man with the van.

Amazing things happened along the way, in that the local community totally embraced what we were trying to do. There were some naysayers, but, whatever. We well and truly showed them.

There was a sewing group that met a few times, where people gathered at the Leges’ offices that were kindly opened to us for free on a Saturday morning by Peter Guest. Sarah Honour rallied the troops who were cutting, ironing, sewing and sorting. Even young children were making rag bunting, and one made bunting that spelled out Security and First Aid that were used for vehicles on the day. The event was truly dressed by the community over the revival weekend. Even local shops provided coffee, cakes, sausage rolls, cups and a hot water urn to keep the team fuelled.

Then a knitting group was set up and it came as a total surprise to as for the event, they beautifully decorated a tree and planted paper flowers around it.

I don’t think something like this has happened for a long time. Visitors to the event really appreciated what they saw and the effort that was put in.

Furthermore, a call for volunteers got a big response. I was very grateful for their help as some people volunteered for the whole two days and in part, this meant they missed out on some of the acts themselves.

People would come up to us and tell us how much they enjoyed the event, say thank you for stepping forward in organising the event, and how it felt so community and family focussed. We were really moved by this.

For me, it was the first time I worked directly with an Events company and a Security company. These were people that got stuck in, were a joy to work with and were very much a part of the family event – David from Slick Events even played the acoustic stage at the top end. Amazing. One of their songs became the soundtrack to the little video I made.

We drank well and slept well on that Sunday for sure.