COMMUNITIES from across Southampton gathered for the Friends of St. James’ Park Summer Festival on Saturday.

The annual festival takes place in St. James’ Park in Shirley with the help of the charity Friends of St. James’ Park, who run the event to allow the people from across the city to get together and have a fun day out.

This year’s summer festival had something for everyone as local children sang on stage, Southampton based charities and businesses set up stalls in the park and a falcon display drew in a wide audience as children had the opportunity to do sports and play in a bouncy castle.

Hilde Gronsberg, from Friends of St James' Park and co-organiser of the event, told The Daily Echo: “The summer festival is our biggest event of the year, which we have been running since 2018. It's literally an excuse to get the whole community together, we put a lot of emphasis on a lot of the charities down here and they come from all over the city for free.

Daily Echo:

“We've been doing events for so many years that the community knows what they're going to get and today seems to be a success and it's a nice day out. ‘Getting communities together’, that's our motto."

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Sue Kinch, who also works for the Shirley-based charity and helped organise the event, added: “I started working for Friends of St. James’ Park in May last year, so we were fresh out of not having any events at the time, so it's about picking it back up and reconnecting with the audience because we've been quiet on the events team for about two years. This is the first time we've had a full summer festival since 2019 and it's great to see today going so well!

Daily Echo:

"Where we have so many communities around the area, today is about bringing everyone together. We've kept everything local which is lovely. It's a celebration of Southampton.”

Joe Jenness, who was attending the event on behalf of voluntary group SO:Linked, told The Echo: “I'm here to support the people of Southampton and show them the support that's available to them. There are amazing organisations that can help people during these difficult times.”