LagoonFest 2024
To read about LagoonFest 2024 tap HERE!
The 2022 Grand Summer Raffle
We raised just over £2000!
Tap here to see the list of prizes… and winners! 👁️
FoHL Events
Friends of Hove Lagoon hit the ground running in 2018 and-19 with the enormously successful LagoonFest. These days we are concentrating on smaller, community-centred events, and for Summer 2022 we are planning a grand prize raffle.
If you’re interested in talking to us about our events, please do get in touch!
Key contacts
- Sue Johnson
About LagoonFest
LagoonFest is a community festival with a village fete vibe which was run by the Friends of Hove Lagoon. The ‘Fest featured local arts, crafts, bric-a-brac, and food stalls, fun on the water, skateboard competitions, music, dog shows, tombola, food and drink, auctions of work by local artist Cassette Lord, and our astonishingly successful raffles!
There have been three LagoonFests – in 2018, 2019, and 2024 – held in early September. The festivals were opened and closed by our friend and patron, Norman Cook a.k.a. the DJ Fatboy Slim. These vibrant events brought many people out to the Lagoon to celebrate with us, and were able to raise a substantial amount of money, thanks to the fees paid by stallholders, and to generous sponsorships from local businesses, and donations collected from the public. With these funds we have been able to develop our marvellous Planting Scheme gardens.
Photo by Jane Galvin
The cancellation of LagoonFest
In 2020 we felt it best, in the shadow of the global Covid-19 pandemic, to cancel LagoonFest, and we ran a successful smaller event instead – The Big Picnic. In 2021 we found that LagoonFest had become too hot to handle! With the numbers of people in attendance at the 2019 event, our festival had been reassessed as a ‘large event’ and this brought with it requirements for fencing and ticketing, which as a group we felt just won’t work for a community festival.
But in 2024, with the help of an events management company, LagoonFest returned, bigger and better than ever!!
Photo by Sam Scammell Photography
Here follows a potted history, and celebration, of LagoonFest…
In 2016 the idea of a community festival came up very soon after FoHL first began – at that time the name ‘Lagoonival’ was suggested. It was decided to model the event on Wish Fest up the road, with food and music, and that the event might perhaps happen in May 2017.
The following year plans were made to hold a small ‘Hove Lagoon Festival’, later dubbed ‘LagoonFest’ on September 9th 2017, alongside events run by Lagoon Watersports. Liz Ward took the lead as festival organiser. The plan was to have just a couple of stalls to raise awareness of FoHL and of LagoonFest, with the intention of holding a bigger event in the following year.
LagoonFest 2018
The date for the first official LagoonFest was set as September 8th, 2018 – 11 am to 4 pm. The LagoonFest volunteer group began to expand. Norman Cook agreed to open the festival, and confirmed he would be in attendance throughout the day.
Liz Ward, Norman Cook, Robert Nemeth, and Sue Johnson
LagoonFest 2018 was a great success, raising £7,750. The weather was OK, and attendance was good. Cassette Lord produced some artwork live at the festival which was later auctioned off with the proceeds going to the Planting Scheme fund. Norman Cook played a set in the Bug Bar after the event had officially closed, and everyone danced – what better way to end a great day?!
Video by The Bug Bar
LagoonFest 2019
The date for the next LagoonFest was confirmed with Brighton & Hove Council: September 7th, 2019. It was planned that the festival would be even bigger and better than in 2018, with consideration given to the placement of, and spacing around, the various attractions, and with a much bigger and more varied food and drinks offering.
And LagoonFest 2019 was a huge success! People flocked to the Lagoon and found there an eclectic village of food and drink vans in the South-West corner, a myriad of stalls all along the north side of the Lagoon selling all sorts of treasures, an exciting Dog Show run by Coastway Vets with many thrills and spills, a gripping paddleboard race, an exhilarating skateboard jam, and much much more besides! Norman Cook and his daughter Nelly helped out with selling the raffle tickets, and all the volunteers did an amazing job keeping all the attractions running smoothly, selling raffle and tombola tickets, overseeing the get-in and close-down of the events, stewarding, and dispensing information. And after we’d put everything away, Norman hit the Bug Bar’s decks again for a surprise set! With the generous help of sponsors, the raffle ticket sales, and donors to our collection buckets, LagoonFest 2019 raised over £13,000 pounds!!
Photo by David Green at Barking Mad Photography
Four beautiful murals, created and donated by Cassette Lord, were on display at LagoonFest, and in November 2019 they went up for auction, where they raised just under £1000.
The 2021 Raffle
LagoonFest was cancelled, but in 2021 we still held a Grand Raffle! We had a magnificent selection of prizes from local businesses, and we had great fun holding small ticket-selling events by the Lagoon and up on the prom outside the Hove Deep Sea Anglers club.
A massive THANK YOU to everyone who bought tickets, almost £2000 was raised!
The Sponsors
The Friends of Hove Lagoon is indebted to the sponsors of LagoonFest, who are (in no particular order):
Friends of Hove Lagoon CIC 