Festival fun returns to Teesdale

THIS month will see the return of Teesdale’s free, all-ages community music festival, Live@Turtle Bend.

The event, held at Turtle Bend Reserve will feature live bands playing in the Turtle Pavilion, food trucks and a lantern parade from the primary school.

“We’ll have two school choirs on early on in the program, a dance class and then a couple of bands that we’ve hired from the local area,” said David Bruce, secretary of the Turtle Bend Events Committee

“We’ll have food vans as the site now has power to it, so it will be locals because we like to support locals where we can.

“We’ve had as many as 700 people at this event in the past which means we’re getting people from well outside Teesdale.”

Mr Bruce said the aim is to bring members young and old members of the community together.

“We’re all volunteers so we don’t make any money on this, it’s done out of the goodness of our hearts,” he said.

“We’re just trying to bring the community together if you like and make the people who live in Teesdale happy they live in Teesdale.”

Mr Bruce encouraged the community to get involved and get to know their neighbours.

“It’s nice to know who’s the other side of the fence,” he said.

“If people don’t know each other, they tend to not necessarily help each other.

“If you get people together and they talk, all those barriers go away, and life becomes a lot nicer.”

Live@Turtle Bend will be on Saturday 21 September from 4pm until 10pm.