Music extravaganza to boost Valley village hall makeover coffers

The people of Hurst Green and the surrounding communities have been working hard over the past few months to raise money to refurbish their war memorial hall and now they are set to provide some festival fun to generate yet more cash.
Thousands are being raised to upgrade this historic hall into the 21st centuryThousands are being raised to upgrade this historic hall into the 21st century
Thousands are being raised to upgrade this historic hall into the 21st century

They are holding a Wine, Beer and Music Festival in the hall on September 13th and 14th.

Derek Harwood, the main organiser of the event, said: "Just because we have to raise money doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun." He has recruited a number of acts to entertain the drinkers starting with the Ribble Valley Jazz Big Band who will open the proceedings on the Friday evening. They will be followed by local bands Sweeney Astray and Drive. The festival will resume on the Saturday afternoon with fun band Blowjangles, followed by Jam Factory in the evening then Level 2 will round off the festivities. Sweeney Astray and other individual artists and singers will also perform.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

There will be a range of red and white wines supplied by Byrne’s wine shop in Clitheroe and several beers from Bowland Brewery. In addition, there will be a gin bar, a food stall, ice cream and prize raffles. “We’ve already had a talent night and a mammoth jumble sale among other things which raised a lot of money,” said Derek. “We are hoping this will be the best yet and the aim is to get support from outside the village as well as the local community.”

“We have a lot of cash to raise and I hope the festival will go quite a way towards the target,” explained Derek. “The hall is an important part of the village and there is a lot of emotionalinvestment in it because many of the villagers’ mums and dads put a lot of effort in to build it. But it is fifties technology and we need to bring it up to the 21st century. Once we have got the first two phases finished we can then start looking at phase three, but that is some way down the line. In the meantime, we hope that lots of people turn up, have some fun and boostour coffers to restore our village hall.”

The first phase of the project is to retile the leaking roof. This alone will cost in the region of £80,000 and the project group have been successful in gaining a grant of £30,000 from the Lancashire Environment Fund. They are hopeful of success with another grant which will boost the £15,000 or so they have raised so far. The next phase is to install ground source heating, which again will cost in the region of £100,000.

Tickets are £10 for the Friday evening event, which will start at 7pm and continue until midnight. Saturday’s fun will start at 2pm and again go on till midnight. Tickets for all day are £12. The ticket price will include a free glass of wine or beer. Children will be charged at half price and they too will get a free drink – a soft one.Tickets are available from Derek Harwood on 01254 826252 or Peter Butterfield on 01254 826308. Festival goers can also order tickets through [email protected].

Related topics: