Stockport MindFest
Rachel and Dave (two of Mind's Infoline advisors) have written about the recent festival run by Stockport Mind.
This is a blog about Stockport Mind’s festival, a day of family fun and music which helped raise awareness about mental health. We are two Mind Infoline advisors who attended and performed at the festival. It was a wonderful event to be part of.
The festival included a music stage, bike show, family entertainment and a beer tent. It was run by Stockport Mind’s lovely staff and kind volunteers. They were on hand to speak to the public about anything from a range of mental health problems to where the toilets are. It was great to see such an open environment to talk about mental health.
The festival was set up to not only raise money for Stockport Mind but to bring the community together in a fun way at a place where they can feel safe talking about mental health problems. The atmosphere was clearly one of acceptance and positivity.
The compere was very vocal about Mind’s mission and values which was widely appreciated by the audience!
One of the most popular areas at the festival was the band stage. We are both keen musicians and performers and were very keen to be involved in a day that celebrates the positive effects of music on mental wellbeing. The benefits of music as therapy have been well documented. It can help us feel good and often is an important tool that can help us manage difficult moments within our lives. Music can make people smile. To listen and to create music can really help people communicate how they feel.
Music can help us manage a wide range of emotions and there was certainly a wide range of acts on the stage. Music ranging from heavy metal and soul to electro indie and ska got the crowd at Woodbank Park dancing away in the Saturday sun. One of the staff performed with their band and were very warmly received, they even managed to raise some money by selling some exclusive-to-Mind demo CD’s!
It was great to spend the day with colleagues from the Infoline supporting a great cause. It was also fantastic to meet the staff at Stockport Mind, the volunteers and the organisers of the festival. Clearly everyone had worked very hard to ensure a really fun day was had by all. It was an honour to be involved and we hope the festival is back even bigger and better next year, we will definitely be there!
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