GALLERY: CALM Rocks Secret Garden Party 2013

Last weekend, the CALM office decamped to a field in Cambridgeshire and embarked on a mammoth tea and biccie distribution and awareness campaign.  The inaugural ‘CALMzone’ tent at Secret Garden Party saw thousands of glittered and feathered festival goers tucking into a cup of rosie lea and a rich tea, whilst chilling out with a book, sharing their deepest thoughts on our Wall of Secrets or chatting to CALM volunteers and staff about what CALM do and why we were there.  We realised our vision of creating a chilled out and welcoming space where visitors felt at ease talking about mental health and learning about the issue of male suicide in the UK.  The response to CALM’s work was universally positive with some very humbling moments from a number of festival goers, who were itching to volunteer and join the Campaign Against Living Miserably.

It was a truly amazing weekend, where we got the opportunity to meet some fantastic people and spread the CALM message to a very accommodating and receptive crowd who made us feel very welcome indeed, plus we raised £426 in donations!  Outreach doesn’t come much more enjoyable than this!

None of this could have been possible, however, without the generosity, hard work and dedication of a number of different individuals and companies, therefore we extend ENORMOUS thanks to:

• Eddy Temple-Morris and Freddie Fellowes for creating the idea and inviting us along to the party!
• To Marcus Chapman and Twinings for all the fabulous tea.
• To the Homes Network & Ideal Home Magazine at IPC Media for for all the soft furnishings and for pulling in Ikea for the sofas and Tesco for the biscuits.
• To Chris Sav for his wonderful CALMzone banner.
• To Marilena and all of Vito’s family for their remarkable support and generosity.
• To our amazing team of volunteers – Charlene, Alex, John, Emily, Leonie, Jane, Cecilia and Graham.  We couldn’t have asked for a more awesome crew to work with.

See you next year!

Check out our Secret Garden Party gallery: