‘We launched a music festival on Penny Lane’
We’re John Lennon and George Harrison’s old school, and when I became PTA chair I thought we should tap into that. I’ve always worked in live music and events, so it just seemed like a natural thing to upgrade the school fair and turn it into a music festival. We rebranded as ‘Dovefest’ and set up in the school sports field. Luckily the field is separate from the school, which I think helps. I’m sure a lot of people have no idea the festival is run by a PTA.
We have all the normal school fair things like food stalls, games stalls and inflatables, but then we have a bar and a proper stage with bands, choirs and dance troupes performing – a mix of amateur and professional. Last year one of the highlights was Clark Gilmour, a Beatles fanatic who performs at The Cavern Club and is one of the organisers of International Beatleweek. We’re really lucky to have some super talented parents at our school as well – one of the dads is a John Lennon impersonator, and a group of parents who did the music for the school panto have now formed a professional covers band.
We also have community groups coming in to run free workshops on things like capoeira, African drumming, circus skills and puppetry, which draws people in and gives it more of a party atmosphere.
I do quite a big marketing campaign for the festival on social media and put posters up in all the busiest local shops at least six weeks in advance. Last year more than 3,000 people came, some of them from across the water in the Wirral. We made £13,000, which is amazing.
I think it being a free festival helps, as of course does being on the famous Penny Lane.
Leigh-Angel Bevan is chair of Dovedale Primary School PTA in Liverpool (840 pupils)
‘History lovers flocked to our Roman festival’
A lady from our local history society first approached us and asked if we’d be interested in organising a Roman festival with them. We said yes straight away, because we knew the kids would love it. Joining forces with the history society meant we had lots of people to help and could make it a really big event.
Birdlip has a strong Roman connection – archaeologists found lots of Roman remains when the new road was built here. One of our locals is a member of the Ermine Street Guard, who travel all over the country performing Roman reenactments, and they agreed to be involved.
A local farmer let us hire several fields and a bar in a converted barn. The Ermine Street Guard dressed up as Roman soldiers and marched from the school all the way down to the fields, where they set up a Roman camp. It was quite a sight to see.
There were reenactments throughout the day, Roman games for the children to play, Roman toolmaking workshops and stalls selling replica Roman artefacts. Cotswold Archaeology displayed some of their finds, as did the local metal detecting society and Cirencester Museum. We had food vendors doing pizza, a barbecue and ice cream. It was hilarious seeing all the Roman soldiers queuing up at the ice cream van.
The event was really successful – more so than we expected, considering it was the first year we’d done it. Around 1,000 people came, including foreign tourists and archaeology enthusiasts from all around the country. We raised £6,000, which we split with the history society. We’re a very small school, so to raise that kind of money we’d have had to do hundreds of non-uniform days.
I’d really recommend other PTAs capitalising on their own local history if they can.
Hayley Harrison is chair of Birdlip Primary School PTA in Gloucester (100 pupils)
- Find out how to record your schools history
‘Our fireworks display is a local institution’
Our school fireworks display has been going for over 40 years and everybody knows about it. We get up to 3,000 people and only about 20 per cent are school families. We’re only a small village, but people drive 15 or 20 miles to come. In recent years the profits have been amazing – the last one made almost £15,000.
We use an outside company to do the fireworks and we make sure they’re very high quality, which I think is important. It’s also important to make it feel like we’re offering a whole evening’s entertainment. We start by lighting the bonfire about half an hour after we open, which always gets a big whoop from the crowd. Then we have two fireworks displays, one a bit earlier that’s more for the younger kids, and another later on that’s slightly more dramatic. Having a second display is a good way of getting people to stick around, so they spend more money at the stalls.
We bring in outside vendors to do everything from jacket potatoes, pizza, fish and chips and burgers to fajitas and a hog roast. There’s always a carousel ride for the little kids, and we’ve had car rides and a Fun House. People either approach us with a view to attending, or I find them through Facebook. Many have been coming back for years. We keep things simple by charging a flat fee.
Holding such a big event can be stressful but it’s worth it when you see everyone enjoying themselves.
Lisa Fox is chair of Wisbech St Mary Church of England Academy PTFA (200 pupils)
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