The annual Jesmond Community Festival gets under way this week after its official launch at 97&Social on Tuesday (May 7th) by Lord Mayor David Down and chair of Jesmond Community Forum, Dave Cross. Local councillors and community group representatives were also among the attendees.

With the festival now in its 14th year, event manager Chris Murtaugh manager explained how the biggest problem faced has been getting sponsors.

“A lot of the shops are owned nationally and not locally, so changing their attitude of wanting to get involved has been our biggest challenge.”

According to Dave Cross, chair of Jesmond Community Forum, the planning of the festival starts as soon as one year finishes in an attempt to harness local groups’ enthusiasm and ideas for how to improve itt:

“We’re very lucky. Not every community has such a wide range of community activities in their areas.”

Like last year, Peruvian band Apu performed their music to entertain the guests, with the refreshments provided for attendees by 97&Social.

The launch was also attended by Labour councillors Stella Postlethwaite for North Jesmond and Felicity Mendelson for South Jesmond.

Postlethwaite talked about her excitement about the festival and its packed programme, thanking the organisers and the work put in by the individual community groups, saying:

“It’s a huge achievement when one group puts on an event that they’ve planned for months in advance. Because of all those different people and groups we can boast so many different activities taking place every day.”

Councillor Mendelson agreed saying:

“We’re so pleased to be involved in supporting the festival and making sure it happens. Since funding has been reduced it’s good that we can keep it going.”

Jesmond Community Leisure is a main sponsor of the event this year, and Phil Drape, manager at Jesmond Pool said: “We’re part of the community and we believe in these community ties, so we’re proud to be a sponsor.”

Lord Mayor David Down, who is stepping down at the end of the month, highlighted the importance of local communities like Jesmond for the city as a whole, saying: “It’s been wonderful meeting the different communities and the different parts of the city that we can’t do without. The city wouldn’t function as well as it does without the community spirit, particularly here in Jesmond.”

The festival is set to run for three weeks with the first events taking place this Saturday, 11th of May with returning favourite Jazz Night by Newcastle University’s student Jazz Orchestra, among others.

For more information and a full list of the events, visit the festival’s website, or Jesmond Community Festival Facebook page.