This year’s festival will see Scottish singer/songwriter Callum Beattie perform in the headline slot at the close of the day on the Saturday. Callum is hugely popular in his homeland but less widely known south of the border. RFestival 25 is his debut festival chosen to showcase his talent in England this year.

Other bands include Queen tribute Flash, who proved popular at last year’s event with a dynamic performance that closely echoed the iconic band. Flash were described by the BBC as “as good as it gets” for a Queen tribute.

A further tribute performance will come from Wrong Jovi, who will be delivering anthems and rock favourites from American rock band Bon Jovi.

Saturday will also see a number of originals bands including Norwich-based Koba, who were recently named this year’s Metal 2 the Masses award for East Anglia, and Dissident Bleu, whose music has been described as “angular post-punk meets expansive alt-rock with raw expressive vocals”.

Further details of the artists performing on both Festival Saturday in Rookery Meadow and at the King’s Arms in Reepham Market Place on Festival Sunday can be found on the RFestival 25 website.

Tickets for the event are £40 per adult and just £1 for under 16s accompanied by an adult.

Photo: Reepham Festival

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Left to right: Tina Pashley, Ian Kenvyn and Polly Brockis of the Bircham Centre pictured with Brenda Gostling and Mark Bridges from the Reepham Festival team that started the campaign to bring Prince to Reepham. Photos: John Tym

The RFestival team pledged an initial £2,000 to the campaign but called upon the local community to come up with the remaining £4,000 required to get the sculpture installed in the town.

Residents, businesses and local organisations from Reepham and the surrounding area rose to the occasion, with donations coming in via a JustGiving page, loose change buckets in shops and through local fundraising.

Brenda Gostling, music festival team member who co-ordinated the campaign, said: “This is a testament to the amazing community spirit we have in Reepham.

“We’ve had money in not just from our shops, pubs, cafés and other businesses, but also from the WI, local Lions Club, Reepham Town Council and – most importantly – from the wonderful people who live here.

“I believe we are the only community to have funded a sculpture in this year’s trail – and maybe in any of Break’s GoGo trails to date. I’m proud to have helped make it happen.”

Break, the charity running the GoGoSafari trail, became one of Reepham Festival’s charity partners in 2024 and will also benefit from this year’s event, which takes place on the weekend of 9–10 August.

Reepham’s GoGoSafari Lion is called Prince, named after the late musician, with a flowing purple mane (echoing the hit Purple Rain) and musical notes on his flanks.

His legs show him walking through Reepham hollyhocks – the town is currently filled with these graceful, colourful flowers, growing on the edges of its streets.

Prince can be found in Reepham’s Market Place at the front of the Bircham Centre, the town’s community hub, hosting a charity shop, library, community garden and various groups and activities.

Trail followers who collect the sculpture in the GoGoSafari app can earn a Reepham Reward: businesses in the Market Place showing the purple pawprint sign in their windows are offering special deals or discounts to those who have earned the reward.

There is also a RFestival 25 reward to be claimed, before 8 August.

See our earlier stories:

• Target reached to secure GoGoSafari lion
• Campaign launched to bring GoGoSafari trail to Reepham

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Read the EDP story HERE.

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Organisers of the Reepham Festival co-ordinated the campaign to raise the £6,000 required to get a GoGoSafari lion, raising £2,000 themselves. Contributions were also received from Reepham Lions Club, Reepham WI, Taverham Lions Club and Reepham Town Council.

Residents supported the campaign by donating their loose change in collection buckets about the town and by donating on the JustGiving page set up by Break. There were also generous donations from local shops and businesses.

The GoGoSafari trail runs from Monday 23 June and runs until Saturday 30 August. Reepham’s lion, who has been named Prince, will be located in the Market Place and is being painted by one of Break’s regular GoGo trail artists, Mik Richardson from Aylsham.

The exact location and design are being kept secret for the time being – the location will be announced nearer the time, but visitors will have to wait until the trail starts to see the actual design.

There will be 51 sculptures in total – many in Norwich city centre plus a county trail that includes the sculpture in Reepham.

Trail maps and a trail app will be available, and there will also be a trail hub, called the Lookout, in The Forum, Norwich, throughout the trail for further information.

Break raises funds for its work with young people going into care, while in care and after leaving care. The GoGoSafari Trail will generate money for them when the sculptures are auctioned off after the trail has finished.

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The organisers of Reepham’s annual music festival have taken on the task of facilitating and promoting the campaign to raise the money needed to sponsor the animal.

They hope that support will be forthcoming through donations from individuals, organisations and businesses that have a connection to Reepham. They aim to raise the money needed this summer to secure Reepham’s place on the 2025 trail.

Donations to the campaign can be paid via a JustGiving page, with the money donated there going directly to Break.

Donations can also be made by bank transfer or cheque; please contact the Reepham Festival team by email for further details.

Break Charity has brought four trails to the streets of Norwich and Norfolk over the past 11 years, featuring gorillas, dragons, hares, dinosaurs and mammoths.

The 2025 trail will involve a mix of sculptures depicting the “Big 5” safari animals: lion, elephant, gorilla, giraffe and rhinoceros.

Reepham Festival has reserved a lion sculpture for Reepham and has pledged to kickstart the campaign with a £2,000 donation from its charity fund.

Brenda Gostling, who looks after marketing and communications for Reepham Festival, explained why the annual music event has taken on this task.

“We believe that a GoGoSafari sculpture will bring benefits across the board for the town,” she said.

“It will bring in new visitors who can browse our shops and use our pubs and cafés, it will raise awareness of our lovely historic town and it will give our residents something to make them smile.

“Not only that, it will also support one of Norfolk’s best-loved charities, Break, who do such wonderful work with young people in care and leaving care. We’re very proud to play our part to help make this happen.”

This year’s Reepham Festival takes place on the weekend of 10–11 August and features headliners, The Hoosiers, as well as bands from Norfolk, other parts of the UK and the US. See the RFestival 24 website for the full lineup and ticket information.

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Surplus money raised from the festival, which will be held in Reepham over the weekend of 10–11 August, is donated to local charities and good causes, and a number of charities are invited to have a presence on the festival field each year.

As the principal charity partner of RFestival 24, Break will not only be there on the day, but it will also subsequently receive a donation from Reepham Festival’s charity fund.

Festival director Tom Crisp said: “We’re thrilled to have formed this partnership with one of Norfolk’s foremost charities.

“Break’s work with young people is hugely important and we are proud to name our main stage The Break Stage.”

Break Charity raises funds to support its work to make life better for young people on the edge of care, in care and leaving care.

The charity recently announced its next sculpture trail for Norwich in summer 2025 with “Big Five” animal sculptures forming the GoGoSafari Trail.

Break hopes to raise awareness at the festival of both its work and the forthcoming trail.

Break fundraising manager Sarah Bunn said: “We are truly thrilled to be partnering with the Reepham Festival for their 2024 event.

“The festival is a wonderful family event and aligns with Break’s ethos as a charity supporting young people in and leaving care; being a family to support them when they need it, for as long as they need it.

“We look forward to working with the festival team and making this an event to remember.”

Tickets for RFestival 24 cost £40 per adult (under 16s tickets just £1 each) and can be purchased from the festival website.

See our earlier story:

• Chart-toppers to headline summer music festival

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The annual music event, which has been running since 2008, has been rebranded this year as RFestival 24 and will be held over the weekend of 10–11 August.

The Hoosiers arrived on the UK music scene in 2007 when their debut album, The Trick to Life, which included the top-five singles Goodbye Mr A and Worried About Ray, rose to number one in the charts. Last September the band released a new album, Confidence, with an enhanced version, Overconfidence, released in January.

Two other acts announced so far are Cable Street Collective, with their eclectic mix of upbeat rhythms and Congolese-influenced guitar sounds, as well as the return of festival favourites from the USA, Tragedy, who are extending their UK tour specially for the Reepham event, presenting an “all-metal tribute to the Bee Gees and beyond”.

The weekend event will feature two stages on the festival field on Saturday 10 August, providing music for around nine hours, with a third stage on Sunday 11 August at the Kings Arms in the Market Place providing another five hours of live music.

A limited number of early bird tickets are on sale at £32 per adult. Full-price tickets at £40 per adult will go on sale once the early bird allocation has been sold. Tickets for under 16s accompanied by an adult are just £1 each.

Tickets can be purchased from the festival website.

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The grant was awarded from the Community Grant Scheme, which is aimed at empowering communities by providing funding to enable community organisations to help themselves.

The aim of this funding is “to build capacity within communities so that groups are enabled to be self-sustaining without ongoing practical and financial support from the council”.

The grant will be used to buy equipment including fencing panels, gazebos, tables and chairs.

Reepham Festival is run by volunteers who take no payment for their services.

The two-day event takes place in August each year, with the 2024 event scheduled for 10–11 August. Ticket prices are kept as low as possible to ensure the festival can be enjoyed by a wide range of people.

Any surplus profits made from the event are donated to local charities and good causes: the 2023 event generated more than £7,000 for charitable causes from direct and indirect donations.

The festival team said rising costs are a concern and the grant application is one way in which they hope to manage future costs. Other measures to offset the cost of the event include sponsorship and advertising.

As a community interest company (CIC), Reepham Festival is regulated by the Office of the Regulator of Community Interest Companies and pays corporation tax on any retained taxable profits from the year’s trading.

The Community Grant Scheme application involved a complex and detailed submission, which was put forward to the panel by Reepham’s district councillor, Stuart Beadle.

Festival director Tom Crisp thanked Broadland District Council for its support.

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Reepham Festival CIC, which became a community interest company in March, runs the town’s annual music festival. It aims to provide both an enjoyable, affordable festival for music lovers and to raise funds for local charities and good causes through ticket sales, sponsorship and advertising.

The 2023 event in August was once again a musical and financial success, allowing the festival team to make a number of donations from surplus money raised.

The Bircham Centre was also able to benefit over the festival weekend from a stall selling second-hand clothing and accessories on the festival field and from the opening of its charity shop, as well as fundraising for the Raise the Roof campaign on both days. This resulted in a further £500 being added to the charity’s funds.

The festival’s donation to the Bircham Centre is the first of this year’s donations to be presented.

Festival director Tom Crisp said: “The Bircham Centre is a wonderful resource for Reepham and we’re thrilled to give the donation that enables them to reach the Raise the Roof target. We’re hoping that they will be even more involved in the festival next year.”

Les West, chair of the Bircham Centre charity trustees, was delighted with the donation and with the success of the Raise the Roof campaign.

“This is a perfect example of the way different organisations within Reepham can work together,” he said. “We’d like to extend our thanks to Reepham Festival and to everyone who has sponsored a tile or supported one of our fundraising events.

“Reepham has done us proud. Thanks to all of you, we are able to maintain the building so it can be enjoyed by many generations to come.”

Planning has already begun for next year’s Reepham Festival, which will be held on 10–11 August 2024.

See our earlier stories:

• Unforgettable moments at summer music festival
• Community building launches fundraising appeal for roof repairs

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Punk princess Toyah Willcox and rock legend husband Robert Fripp brought the Saturday performances at Rookery Meadow to a close with a set that included not only her own hits from the ’80s but also iconic rock numbers such as David Bowie’s Heroes and Guns N’ Roses’ Sweet Child of Mine, many of which featured Fripp on guitar in their original versions.

At the start of Toyah’s performance, one fan threw a pair of red underpants onto the stage, which she somewhat gingerly picked up to show the crowd, much to their delight.

Despite the good forecast and sunny start to the afternoon, the weather changed and fans found themselves dancing in heavy showers.

Between the downpours the crowd were treated to the sight of a double rainbow over one of the two stages, which lent a magical air to the proceedings.

Festival director Tom Crisp said: “Reepham Festival punches well above its weight with a professional set-up and superb facilities for both bands and attendees.

“Bands who play our stages are always amazed at the atmosphere: we create something that is unique in the festival circuit.”

The second day of the festival took place in Reepham’s Market Place, with bands playing in the courtyard of the King’s Arms pub, including the Cult tribute band Cultish.

Reepham Festival is a community interest company run by volunteers, receiving sponsorship from such companies as Hansells Solicitors, Busseys, Auction House East Anglia and Taverham Nursery Centre.

Any surplus profits from ticket sales and the on-field bar will be donated to local charities.

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