T he Common Touch... Anniversary party time

JUNE is a special and very busy month at Whistlewood Common; we have lots of people hiring the site for birthday parties and celebrations as well as lots of courses and wellbeing events going on

Summer wouldn’t be summer without a festival; this year our Midsummer-ish Festival is on Saturday, June 24. Being our 10th anniversary year we’re planning a big, big party As a not-forprofit co-operative ‘for the benefit of the community’ we’re run on a bit of a shoestring, which is why we are extremely grateful to everyone who buys tickets and to those who help with our main fundraising event in the year – our festival

You can buy shares in our co-operative too and be part of our membership, which also helps us fund our site

The music is the main focus of the day and the programme of bands is curated by our own Roger Spencer, who is a local musician and always provides us with a line-up of varied bands and choirs including lots of local acts and young musicians Some of the acts for the day are, Calling Time, A Choir ’d Taste, Our local ukelele group, The Roster, The Telephones, Charlie King and Andrew Horth

There is an open mic spot too, so if you want to attend and give us a song on the stage let us know The times for our festival are midday until 11pm We like to think of it as Melbourne’s answer to Glastonbury, with an opportunity to camp over on the Saturday night if you want the full-on festival experience, but still near enough to walk (wobble?) home to bed if camping isn’t your thing!

I’ve been to Glastonbury and I’d like to put it on record that our toilets are much nicer than theirs and this year we have a brand new additional composting toilet to share with you, we have the poshest eco toilets in South Derbyshire, real loos with views!

There are a limited amount of dog tickets for well-behaved dogs on short leads attached to well-behaved owners

There’s all the fun of a festival including various food stalls, homemade cakes, eco glitter face painting and a bar. We’re also planning lots of festival games and events too which we’re keeping under our festival hats We’d love to see you wearing your festival hats and best party outfits, people are welcome to bring their gazebos and make a big friends and family day of it

Our Duke of Edinburgh volunteers are always a great help to us at festival time and it’s nice for the local teenagers to have a chance to attend such a local festival at a site they’ve helped care for Whistlewood in June looks beautiful, we have great sunsets and the stage in front of the strawbale roundhouse makes it such a beautiful venue We’re looking forward to celebrating with you!

– KATHERINE PARRISH

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