IT may not be as big as Glastonbury but the Rookwood Music Festival in Medstead next month will not only see 12 top bands take centre stage before an expected 700 crowd but it will be for a worthy cause – the building of a new paediatric care unit at Southampton General Hospital.
It is being organised by actors Sarah Parish and Jim Murray, who are known for their fundraising campaigns on behalf of the hospital when, after losing their eight-month-old daughter Ella-Jayne after a traumatic premature birth, they pledged to raise £1m in her memory to fund the expansion of the children’s unit.
Now they have been spurred on after Chancellor George Osborne gave their charity, the Murray Parish Trust, a £2m grant in the budget to help them build the £4.8m unit.
“Now,” Sarah said, “we have to match that £2m and the music festival will help get our funds rolling for the paediatric care unit on a site near Southampton General Hospital that will be the hub for the whole of the region in treating children from babies to 17 year olds.
“At present there are two A&E departments at Southampton and one treats both children and adults, which can be distressing for the children and it means, as they are seen first, adult patients have to wait.
“The shell of the new unit is already there and we want to go on building higher and higher until we have built an entire children’s hospital.”
Certainly Sarah and her husband, who live at Ovington and have a six-year-old daughter Nell, are laying on a feast of not only music but food and drink with dishes from most continental countries on the menu.
They have already have signed up Frank & Fast’s Fun Loving Criminals DJ Set, Ward Thomas, and Dodgy. According to Sarah, “many more which will be confirmed”.
“The present line up has impressive chart credentials, with Fun Loving Criminals scoring eight top 40 singles since the 1990s, and Dodgy, whose hit Good Enough reached number four in the UK singles chart in the 1990s.
Of particular local interest is Ward Thomas, who have taken the country market by storm since arriving on the music scene in 2014. Sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward-Thomas have already had a number one album on the iTunes Country Chart, and won UK Album of the Year at the British Country Music Awards.
The festival is on June 4 at Rookwood House – the site of the original Rookwood Festival in 2002 – from 4pm-1am.
“A company called Pulse, who have lot of experience in organising this kind of event, are running the festival and and there will be security all round the 14-acre site, and in addition to the music there will be stalls and camping for those wanting to stay overnight and, of course, plenty of food and drink.”
Tickets are £50 for adults and £20 for children aged 10 to 17, with under-10s free with an adult.
Sarah said: “I advise people to go for family tickets and discounts which will make the entrance fee much cheaper and the money the festival will raise is for a very worthwhile cause.”
The two actors are combining organising the festival with a busy workload.
Sarah has just finished filming The Collection for television and is about to join the cast of the new series of Broadchurch, and Jim has just finished filming television drama Suspect in Italy.
They pledged to raise a £1m in memory of Ella-Jayne and the music festival will be the third major fundraiser they have staged.
To buy tickets for the Rookwood Festival, visit murrayparishtrust.com/rookwood.