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Jacksplace hosts festival for young adults

Naomi House & Jacksplace staff wearing festival attire pulling silly faces

Last weekend, we hosted a festival for the young adults that use Jacksplace, alongside their family and friends.

Every year, we host Jestival, an internal festival held at Jacksplace. This year’s event featured live music from local musicians, a barbeque cooked in the Jacksplace BBQ hut, glitter face painting, massages, mocktails, snacks, a photo booth and lots of singing, dancing and happy energy from the staff and attendees.

Young adult and staff member smiling in hats and sunglasses with banana prop
Young adults holding hands and laughing
Nurse, young adult and their family posing for photo with silly props and hats
Nurse with sunglasses on posing peace symbol on fingers

Local artists, Ollie Wade (from Winchester), Abi Carr (from Eastleigh), Calum Lintott (from Southampton), Singer Stu (from Southampton) and Fables (a duo from Southampton), all volunteered their time to play at the festival and spent some time afterwards dancing and chatting with the young adults and staff. Slide below to check out these awesome local musicians.

Calum Lintott, musician singing and playing guitar in grey hoodie
Ollie Wade, musician singing and playing guitar
Abi Carr, musician singing and playing ukelele in blue floral shirt
Fables, a male and female musical duet singing and playing guitar
Singer Stu singing into microphone and playing guitar at Jestival

Claire Potterton, Play and Activities Team Leader at Naomi House & Jacksplace, said:

We had such a fantastic day – the weather didn’t put a dampener on our fun! We brought the festival indoors this year and went all out with decorations, creating different areas for all our festival activities. The young adults, families and staff alike fully embraced the festival theme; singing, dancing and dressing up for the occasion, with multicoloured costumes, glitter face paints, hair flowers and bandanas.

Staff member and young adult smiling with dolphin and parrot props
Carer and young adult smiling with hats on and silly props
Nurse and Carer dancing with young adult at Jestival
Young adults dressed in vibrant colours in front of flower wall

An absolute highlight was the incredible live music. Five fantastic musicians volunteered their time to perform and put on a fantastic show – everyone had a blast from start to finish. Dancing, singing, headbands flashing and silly props galore! It was such an uplifting, happy atmosphere with everyone involved enjoying the company of each other. It was certainly a day to remember!

— Claire Potterton
Group of young adults together at Jestival 2023

Abi Carr, a local musician from Eastleigh who sang and played their ukelele at Jestival, said:

I want to thank all the staff and young people at Jacksplace for an amazing day. We danced, we sang, we covered ourselves in glitter! It was a brilliant opportunity and I hope to be back soon.

— Abi Carr
Young adult and family member smiling with hat and sunglasses
Staff and young adult posing with thumbs up
Naomi House & Jacksplace cooks in festival attire with silly props
Girl and mum smiling with silly props and hats

Thank you so much to everyone that volunteered their time to make Jestival a very special enjoyable event. A special thank you to AJG Audio for supplying the sound system for the live music on the day.

Jestival 2023

Experience the brilliant Jestival 2023 in this short film.

Jacksplace

Did you know?! Jacksplace is the only hospice in central southern England that offers care, support, independence, empowerment and dignity for life limited and life threatened young adults from the age of 16. Click below to find out more/support your local young adults' hospice.

Jacksplace