Oakley Fest was held at Oakley Vale Community Centre on Saturday, July 20, from 11am till 4pm.
The day saw a wide variety of things to see and do including the Scouts, inflatables, Buddy’s Fun Dog Show, archery, a tombola, glitter art, Go-Ukes Ukulele, face painting, Rangers music group and more.
There were also a number of stalls to browse both inside and outside the venue selling all kinds of different crafts and trinkets.
Chair of Oakley Vale Community Centre, Peter Moden said: “It’s been an absolutely fabulous day from beginning at 10am right through to the end.
"We had the opening with the mayor Ross Armour and that was absolutely fantastic. There was a nice highlight with Lee Barron coming along and Mark Pengelly and that was lovely too. It was great to see that town council support and that local MP support too.
“We’ve had some wonderful things going on, we’ve had a ukulele band, we’ve had the Rangers singing too, we’ve got Corby Radio outside, loads of stalls, loads of things for people to do and buy and eat, inside or outside. You can just sit and enjoy the day without any pressure.
“It’s met my expectations and I hope it has for the community because that’s what it’s all about, we do it for that reason. I love the fact that people sit on the grass and just have a picnic and just watch the world go by and just enjoy the music and enjoy the atmosphere.”
At the event this year they raised money for ten-year-old Harry Reid, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, and seven-year-old Florence Bark, who is currently battling graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) of the lungs.
On the day they had treadmills, exercise bikes and rowing machines which anyone could have a go on in order to try and reach the goal of accumulatively making it 378 miles to Paris and raising money for Harry Reid and Florence Bark in the process.
Peter said: “They’ve always been very close to our heart and we like to support local people who are just going through life’s difficulties because that happens whoever you are and it’s nice if somebody’s behind you, even a total stranger just to support, and if we can do that, that’s a real heartwarming thing to do.”
The event was opened by mayor of Corby, Cllr Ross Armour, and saw an appearance from Corby’s recently elected MP, Lee Barron.
Lee Barron said: “Today’s brilliant, getting communities together, you can’t beat that sort of thing, that’s what makes a place somewhere to live, buildings are bricks and mortar – people are communities. That’s why I always support things like this because it’s about communities and that’s why I’ll be here, not just today, if this is an annual event, I’ll be here annually, it’s what an MP should do, they should get out and see people and meet people and be part of that community, that’s why it’s really great to be here today.”
Corby Town Council provided £800 towards the event from grant funding.
