GlastHOMEbury
1411. Sarah Emberson
Sarah Emberson, from Hertfordshire, created ‘GlastHOMEbury’ in lieu of this year’s cancelled event, bringing together over 376,000 people for a virtual festival experience.
A regular Glastonbury goer, Sarah set up the online event, which took place over the weekend, to encourage families staying at home to still enjoy the communal spirit of the festival by taking part in specially designed family activities, camping out in gardens and watching BBC coverage from previous Glastonbury festivals together whilst fundraising for charity.
In a personal letter to Sarah, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said:
“I wanted to write personally to congratulate you on the extraordinary success of your ‘GlastHOMEbury’ event bringing together hundreds of thousands of people online to celebrate the spirit of the iconic festival.
“I am a huge admirer of this wonderful festival and I was heartened to hear of you bringing together families up and down the country to set up their tents and channel the spirit of Glastonbury, all while fundraising for charity.”
Sarah said:
“Thank you for the award, it all feels a little surreal, we just wanted to cheer people up and give everyone something fun to look forward to during these tough months of lockdown, whilst raising money for people in need. Credit needs to go to Glastonbury Festival, there is so much love for them, the undisputed best festival in the world, that everyone jumped at the chance to be part of Glasthomebury, to all join together and have a festival at home! It’s not just been myself; John Kelly (my fiancé), my kids Éirinn, Eve, Eliot and Elsie, family Vicki Painter and Caroline Kelly, and friends Vishnee Sauntoo, Emily Ashford, Alex Conomos, Jonnie Barton, Mark Keshishian, John Osbourne Hughes, Dila Vardar, Dave Adams, Kev Tate, Kerry de Leslie and many others helped along the way – everybody worked for free including the famous DJs Mixmaster Morris, Mr.C and Big Fish Little Fish! It’s been a lot of fun – and we hope it’s brought some happiness and joy to people across the country. John and I have charity clients in our day job, and it’s been so nice to use our skills for free to try and make lockdown a brighter place.
“Our followers chose and voted on 100 charities and we picked the top five to raise money for: Mind, NSPCC (including Childline), NHS Charities Together, Refuge and The Trussell Trust – all doing amazing work to support people in emergency situations right now. Charity staff and Just Giving went above and beyond to support us. We’ve been keeping people entertained with music, live DJs, films, a quiz, requests, printables to colour in like bunting, posters, wristbands and a mini phone stage, and invited Glastonbury stall holders to share their recipes so people could recreate the experience at home – even the Hare Krishna’s joined in! It’s been great fun, I’m so happy we cheered so many people up – and this year, everyone can say they went to Glasthomebury!”
Pictured below: Sarah and family watching coverage from previous Glastonbury Festivals, and recreating the camping experience in their garden (Photo credit: Neil Hall)
