Family festival to mark 21st birthday of hospice charity

A '˜birthday bash' of non-stop outdoor entertainment is being held to celebrate the 21st anniversary of a charity supporting all the hospice care providers across Sussex.
Friends of Sussex Hospices holding the Festival 21 event, a birthday bash to celebrate the charity's 21st anniversary - submittedFriends of Sussex Hospices holding the Festival 21 event, a birthday bash to celebrate the charity's 21st anniversary - submitted
Friends of Sussex Hospices holding the Festival 21 event, a birthday bash to celebrate the charity's 21st anniversary - submitted

On Saturday September 3, Festival 21 will host eight hours of family fun (from 2pm to 10pm) including a thrilling air show with seven Great War replica fighters in dogfights, the acclaimed Swamp Circus, and Harris’s Vintage Fun Fair all in the lovely grounds of Danny House - a splendid Elizabethan manor near Hurstpierpoint.

Delicious food and drink, licensed bar and snacks galore will be available to purchase from a variety of outlets. Select from the delicious cakes, together with teas/coffees and soft drinks inside the ‘hospicetality’ marquee where hospice volunteers will be waiting to serve you (up to 6pm)

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The musical line-up kicks off with the lively 25-strong Brighton College Swing Band, fresh from an appearance at the Montreaux Jazz Festival, followed by the entire Pendyrus Male Choir and the bubbly Swingtime Sweethearts. World champion Liptovsky Hradok Dance Conservatoire from Slovakia will also perform.

Highlight of the night is a stunning 60-minute sound and light show projecting the story of Sussex on the façade of Danny House.

The historic manor was where Prime Minister Lloyd George together with Winston Churchill and French and American diplomats met in 1918 to draw up the terms of the Treaty Of Versailles that ended World War One. Sussex’s role in the war features in the show.

A moving hospice tribute, with 3,000 lights against the night sky, and a dazzling laser light show finale tops off this amazing event.

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Advance tickets for Festival 21 are just £22 per adult (accompanied children under 16 go free). Event information: www.festival21.co.uk

More information can be found atwww.friendsofsussexhospices.org.uk

The wonderful work of all twelve Sussex hospice care providers will be celebrated by a parade of flags carried by hospice representatives and accompanied by costumed members of the Southover Bonfire Society.

The massed voices of The Pendyrus Male Choir will build to a crescendo while images depicting hospice care will be projected onto the facade of Danny House.

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Kathy Gore OBE DL, Chair of Friends of Sussex Hospices will lead a moment of reflection with words composed by Rev. Thomas R D Duncanson, and invite everyone to light up the night sky with thousands of little lights (which will be distributed prior to the performance and which may be kept as a memento).

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