Residents and businesses from Looe came together to Save the Day by organising a three day community festival for thousands of music lovers – in just 19 incredible days.

When the official Looe Music Festival was cancelled less than three weeks before it was due to take place, a small group of local people decided to try and do something positive and the Looe Saves The Day festival was born.

Local Cornwall Councillor Edwina Hannaford, who had been involved in setting up the first Looe community music festival seven years ago, put out a call for help on social media and was immediately inundated with offers of support.

Working with the Mayor of Looe and fellow Cornwall Councillor Armand Toms, the duo recruited a small team to help draw up plans for staging an alternative community led event  –  going back to the roots of the original festival.

 “We recognised that the festival was very important to our local economy, generating around £18m over the past seven years “ said Edwina Hannaford.  “Everyone was disappointed by the unexpected cancellation at such short notice and so we decided to see if we could put on an event to replace it.

With the help of the Perfect Events Group (PEG) team led by MD Samantha Groom and event safety manager Mike Ward, the LSTD group pulled together an event management plan and 20 individual appendices covering everything from crowd and traffic management, health and safety to providing public toilets.

Looe Town Council agreed to take on the role of official event organiser, with Mayor Armand Toms, Edwina Hannaford and Looe Town Council clerk Anne Frith becoming the three Festival Directors.

With funding in place, the stage built, hundreds of acts booked – both for the main stage and the 28 bars, cafes and restaurants throughout the town, the town was ready for the start of the community inspired and community organised Looe Saves the Day festival.  

Despite the weather leading to the postponement of some of the acts on the first warm up evening, the first full day of the official festival on Friday, 21 September was a triumph – with thousands of people enjoying the music and other Looe attractions in the sunshine.

One act which caught the attention of festival goers was 17 year old local singer Charlie Harris who had been busking around the town to raise money for the festival.  She did such an amazing job the LSTD organisers gave her a slot on the main stage on the final evening as a thank you for her hard work.

One of the key linchpins of the festival has been the work of the 250 volunteers. Organised by Looe Town Councillor Viv Sullivan, the teams have done everything from marshalling the traffic and supporting Coast 2 Coast security in managing the 3,000 people in the main arena, to giving out programmes, litter picking to keep the streets clean and making thousands of bacon and sausage baps and cups of tea.

Reading the positive comments from festival goers and local residents after the final performance by headliner P.P. Arnold late on Sunday evening, the exhausted but very happy LTSTD group could hardly believe their own achievements.

Mayor Armand Toms says they need a few days to reflect over what has been achieved over the past three weeks and will then ask the town to decide what they want to see in the future.