Thank you to everyone who came to our Castle Vale Community Festival, that took place on Friday 30th August on Farnborough Fields and making it such a great success.

The event saw the wonderful community on the estate brought together, with children enjoying activities such as the colour run, silent disco, various performances from local talent, inflatable games, fair-rides and so much more!

Families were able to listen to great music provided by Switch Radio, watch a community football game raising money for Tommy’s charity and tuck into some tasty food at the ice-cream van and doughnut stand!

The colour-run was organised by our Youth Team at our charitable arm, Compass Support, volunteers from The Prince’s Trust and RAF Squardon 165 Air Cadets. It saw around 100 members of the Castle Vale Community participate whilst being celebrated with vibrant colour!

Making up the festival, there were many stalls on offer, ranging from charities fundraising, festival hair décor to sweet treats galore! Our community partners including YoungStars, Spurgeons, and Spitfire Services attended, as well as our local policing team, who even let the children test out their sirens!

Local resident, Kayla, provided feedback: “What a lovely, family-friendly event! My daughter loved being able to perform at this festival. The games were great, and the free bouncy castle kept the kids entertained. The tombola was fun for everyone too! Overall, a brilliant community event!”

Local resident, Samantha, added: “The festival on Friday was amazing! I brought my daughter and nephews along, who had the best time! It was lovely to see the community brought together and have such a wonderful time.

“I want to say a big thank you to the gentleman managing the tea-cups ride – my daughter is three years old, who suffers with ADHD and Autism. We let her go on the teacups with her cousin, where she got a bit scared and started crying – he noticed this straight away, stopped her cup from spinning, calmed her down and started to make her laugh! That was really caring.”

“The manager was also a lovely lady and deserves a big pat-on-the-back for organising it!”

Event Manager and Project Lead, Rebecca, said: “It was amazing to see the local community buzzing with such excitement! The highlight of my day was seeing the children making the most of the free inflatables and fair rides, whilst families pitched up with picnic blankets and camping chairs to get the full festival experience just down the road from their homes.

“I’d also like to say a huge thank you to all who helped out on the day, the stall-holders, performers and partners – without all of you, the festival wouldn’t have happened!”

Our Chief Executive, Simon, was also on hand to listen Castle Vale residents and tenants share their views about the estate and how we can further improve as an organisation.

Simon said: “It was heartwarming to see so many families attend our Community Festival last Friday, with smiles from parents and children all round.

“I would like to say a huge thank you to our community partners for attending and offering parents such valuable advice and guidance.

“I would also like to say a personal thank you to my staff members Eve, Laura, Rebecca and Talia at The Pioneer Group for working extremely hard in organising this.”

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