Residents at The Abbeys Relive Their Festival Days

Residents at The Abbeys Care Home in Rotherham spent the afternoon at a summer festival held in their own garden. There was a DJ taking requests, a photobooth, face painting and a bar serving both alcoholic and non alcoholic drinks. Families came along, neighbours walked in off the high street and £685 was raised for charity. For resident Peter, who went to festivals across Yorkshire around sixty years ago, it was a chance to relive something he had not done in a very long time.

The Abbeys Care Home is known for their fabulous parties and when the team began planning this year's summer event they were clear it should not be a garden party with a tombola. They wanted something that felt like a real festival, so they asked residents what that would need to look like. Residents chose the music and asked for the face painter and stalls.

The team also asked residents whether they had been to festivals before their answers shaped the day. Peter told them about festivals in Yorkshire around sixty years ago and remembered the loud music and the crowds of people singing and dancing. Margaret said she had been going to festivals many years ago and loved all the singing and dancing. Doreen remembered the Penistone show and the Great Yorkshire Show, where her friends showed their sheep, cows, dogs and pigs, and the year her son picked up her dog to show it and it won.

On the day, the DJ set up in the garden and worked through the songs residents had chosen, taking requests as the afternoon went on. Residents had their faces painted and the photobooth was very popular, with residents calling each other over to have their photographs taken together.

Families arrived as the afternoon went on with children and great grandchildren dancing with their loved ones.

Just like every day at The Abbeys Care Home, their festival was shaped by the people who live here. The music was theirs, chosen by them and the afternoon ran at their pace, so for a few hours everyone was a dancer, a host, someone with a good story to tell. Songs you knew in your twenties reach you in a way newer ones do not and that holds particularly true for people living with dementia.

The team and residents are already planning their next big party. Watch this space!