A few thoughts on Festival Angels

Every year the UK hosts just short of a thousand festivals. Of these five hundred are music festivals. The UK festival sector is a global leader, contributing £1.75 billion to the UK economy annually and supporting eight five thousand jobs. Annual attendance at festivals is around six and a half million people.

In short, the UK festival scene is significant!

Over the last fourteen years a growing number of Christian organisations have realised the potential for working alongside festival organisers to support these events, the staff and festival goers.

Leading the way is Festival Angels!

Since 2011 we have pioneered and gone above and beyond in our offer to festivals. We have teams, or have supported teams, to attend some of the UKs biggest festivals including Leeds, Parklife, Kendal Calling, Download, Creamfields and Latitude.

Festival Angels are there to support the welfare of the festival goers and staff. Through practical ways such as safe hubs, lost property, detached teams (who are out and about across the festival site) and at Leeds a prayer cafe, we demonstrate, and show through banners, Gospels and tattoos, that Jesus Loves Festivals.

Festival Angels has become a family of change makers who support one another, those attending and those working. Festival Angels offer a network of support and connection for groups such as Download Chaplains, Latitude Festival Pastors and the Methodist Church who are also working within the festival scene.

Paul Blakey MBE, who heads up many of the Festival Angels teams, comments, "With the recent talk and research around a 'Quiet Revival' we have seen this evidenced at festivals over the last few years.

"Young people queuing up for tattoos, reading and taking the Jesus Loves Festivals Gospels, asking serious questions and of course having a selfie with Jesus is commonplace.

"Each year we connect with tens of thousands of people, many of them Gen Z. People often come to say thank you for the help we have given them or friends in past years or bring back the Festival Angels mug for a cuppa.

"Festival Angels are in a privileged place working and serving amazing people of all ages, for whom music festivals are a highlight of the year. At each event we are very much joining in with what Jesus is already doing away from our subcultured Christian world."

New ventures for 2025 included supporting Accessibility customers at Kendal Calling with dozens of messages of thanks received on social media. 

In a romantic twist Festival Angels are celebrating an engagement with Jo Lynch and Bryn Wilson, who met whilst on team at Leeds Festival, becoming engaged whilst on the team under the globe at Kendal Calling. ​

Festival Angels are keen to support local church communities to set up teams around smaller festivals and events. Upton-upon-Severn Baptist Church and churches in Porthleven have Festival Angels teams each year which help the church connect and integrate with wider community events.

With a handful of teams to run in 2025, including Leeds Festival, Darley Park Weekender, We Are Church at Creamfields and Street Pastors at Reading Festival, plans are beginning for future development.

A one-off opportunity in 2027 will be the Grande Depart of one of the world's biggest sporting events. The Tour de France will be racing around Scotland, Wales and England in a three day spectacle with Festival Angels / ROC Angels joining forces with Sports Chaplaincy to speak to the organisers about how we can encourage the church and community to better engage along the routes.

Festival Angels is a simple model with an aim of loving the person in front of you through practical help such as sun lotion, plasters and sanitary products. The team's proactive approach is demonstrating to festival goers and staff that Jesus really does love festivals and festival-goers. 

To find out more festivalangels.org.uk or @festivalangels on Facebook and TikTok and @festivalangels1 on Instagram. ​