LoftyFest is a charity music festival organised by Stella and Jim Loftus, every year in June; this year, it was a virtual LoftyFest for Ashford.
Being musicians themselves of Stella N’The Loft fame, their passion for music and local acts is unrivalled. LoftyFest acts as a perfect opportunity to get everyone together and enjoy some quality live music from local musicians. Speaking to CommunityAd Stella tells us the festival origin story:
“It began in 2016 as a family party celebrating a few Loftus milestone birthdays, including an 18th, 21st, 40th, 50th and 60th all in the same year. It was so much fun that every year since then we have continued to organise the event and chosen to use it as an opportunity to raise money and awareness for various charities. LoftyFest is family friendly and we see this as a real community event”.
Prior to 2020’s festival the pair had raised just under £3000 through donations, raffles, art sales, cake sales, BBQ and grid square. Each year a different charity is chosen; in 2017 £1000 was raised for Alzheimer’s Society and Western Alzheimer’s. In 2018 LoftyFest supported East Kent Hospitals Charity – Dementia Appeal (William Harvey) and raised just under £800, and in 2019 a huge £1033.50 was raised for Stroke Association and Headway.
This year LoftyFest, like everything from your child’s PE class and your big business meeting, went online via Facebook live. It was an incredible success as Stella tells us “we raised £1660 altogether £830 for each charity which is our record so far! The quiz sponsored by Invicta Safety raised £140. The grid square sponsored by D&D Autos raised £540. Donations total £980”.
Roll on next year!