Following tradition, August Bank Holiday Sunday (25th August 2024) was Big Payback day for Summer Soulstice and Cherry Lodge Cancer Care. Supporters gathered as usual at the Black Horse pub in Barnet to spend time with friends, enjoy eight hours of great music from Soulstice DJs, celebrate the ongoing support of Summer Soulstice for Cherry Lodge, and applaud the handing over of a very big cheque to help fund CL’s much valued cancer information and support services.
This year’s Summer Soulstice festival, held on Saturday 22nd June, took place during a spell of poor weather and in difficult economic circumstances. Despite the challenges, people came from far and wide (as well as nearby) to enjoy Barnet’s 18th Summer Soulstice festival. The huge effort put in by the Soulstice crew and their supporters paid off yet again – and Cherry Lodge is hugely grateful for this ongoing support. The £20,000 raised this year takes the total donated since 2007 to well over £550,000 – a truly spectacular amount!
The big cheque handover was made at around 6.30. Richard Weekes, a Soulstice founder member, began proceedings by welcoming everyone to the event and introducing himself as the brother of Andy, in whose memory the Soulstice festival is held. Not surprisingly, given the size and complexity of the festival, Richard then read out a long list of thank yous (forgive me for not giving the details here, for fear of an unforgiveable omission!).
Next to speak was Katherine Edwards, co-chair of the Cherry Lodge trustees, who thanked Summer Soulstice for their fantastic donation and assured them that the money would be spent very wisely, including funding our ‘Soulstice’ outreach nurse. Also given a special thank you by Katherine were CL staff members and volunteers who worked extremely hard in support of the Soulstice festival team. A final few words of appreciation were then given by Theresa Villiers, a regular attendee and very committed patron of both Summer Soulstice and Cherry Lodge Cancer Care.
Click on the small images to see larger, complete photographs.
