This August bank holiday weekend Watchet Music Festival was back in the fields overlooking the harbour town; with reduced capacity, lots of hand sanitiser, fresh air and a great line up on the three stages.
The Prayer Tent was also back amongst the traders and entertainers, open from early until late throughout the weekend and hosted by a team of young people and church leaders from local congregations. This year’s theme was ‘Hope’ and festival goers were invited to wander through the ‘woodland’ prayer space and reflect on the past year, adding names of lost loved ones or lost opportunities to the waterfall of CDs and taking with them a message of hope, painted onto a pebble. The final question at the exit was “How could you share hope… with a neighbour, someone across the globe, our beautiful planet?”
On Sunday morning, the We Are The Church band hosted the Festival Service from the Udder Stage which included music, prayers and poetry penned by the team themselves.
18 year old Matt Levett, a Watchet based musician and Intern with Watchet Baptist Church said:
“It was amazing to be a Christian presence at the festival as we lifted Jesus high together from the stage and had conversations with people outside the Prayer Tent.”
Reader and Lay Pioneer Julie Pelling from the Watchet and Williton benefice added:
“It was so wonderful to be part of the Prayer Tent team this year. People have really missed the festival and to be able to be outside, enjoying the sunshine, listening to some great music after the difficult 18 months we’ve had was amazing. We chatted with people, shared stories, listened to people’s joy and sorrows. It was a great privilege to be part of the festival.”
There was also a Virtual prayer tent which you can view here set up with QR codes taking people to an online version of the prayer space containing all the prayers, Bible passages and music used by the team over the weekend.