Black Country festival aims to bring people together again in celebration
A park in the Black Country will play host to the biggest Christian festival to be held in the region for three years.
Himley Park will be the setting for the Together Festival 22, a free event that aims to bring together the churches of the Black Country to re-connect with one another after lockdowns and restrictions.
The event on Saturday, July 9, which is being organised by regeneration group Love Black Country, will see more than 5,000 people enjoy a range of activities at the festival, including Christian entertainment, activities, music, food, creativity and fun for all the family.
Linsey Wildsmith, of Love Black Country, is working to organise the festival and spoke about the length of time since the community have been able to gather in person.
She said: "We've had more than two years of Covid lockdown and churches haven't been able to meet en-mass, and the last time we got together properly was January 2020, so the vision was always to do a big get-together again.
"Once we knew we could do it, we thought we might as well go big and Himley Hall is just a beautiful park with a natural amphitheatre, as well as being central for us as a Black Country charity."
Activities during the day will include different zones, including a gaming zone with video games and a football cage, a youth zone and creative zone, a performance space in a tent, with acoustic performances and workshops, and live performances on the main stage all day.
The festival will be free to enter, with those attending being encouraged to make a donation when booking, as well as a request being put out to organisations for sponsorship.
Ms Wildsmith said the idea of the festival was to bring people together and having a fun day out celebrating the Black Country and togetherness.
She said: "It's not just about Christianity, but about humanity and bring people back together again as it has been an awful couple of years.
"We've been told that the one thing we should be doing is avoiding each other and we want to show that's not the long-term vision for anyone in this region and we want to be together again and celebrating.
"It's a real privilege to be part of this and I think it will be the biggest gathering of Christians in the Black Country ever."
To find out more and to get tickets, go to loveblackcountryfestival.com
