Thank you so much to the Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music Committee for selecting our charity to receive the very generous donation of £300 from the money raised at their first festival held in August 2019. We are extremely grateful to family friend Becky Hamilton-Wright for nominating Jess Grant Celebration for this donation. Henry Creagh, one of the festival organisers, very kindly had the following to say about Jess Grant Celebration: “It’s a great cause and an inspiring idea to be able to help people, especially children through music in this way, and just the kind of thing that the festival is all about.”

Thank you very much to Henry for providing the following information about the Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music, its aims and their plans for this year’s festival. We will keep everything crossed for them that they are able to hold this year’s festival at some stage.

“The Woodbridge Festival of Art and Music was set up to be a creative event for the town that would inspire and encourage arts and creative industries in the local area, and give audiences a high quality experience of local, national and international acts. We also wanted to inspire the next generation of artists by getting local schools and organisations involved in the festival, and by raising money for creative education for young people in Suffolk.

As well as being multi art form, diverse and accessible, we also have a strong sustainability message both in the way we do things at the event and through collaboration with local green organisations.

Under the present circumstances, (which I’d like to but can’t avoid mentioning), we do hope to put on an event in the town once its safe to do so. Because we’re fairly small, and mainly voluntary, we think we can do this at short notice once the moment arises, so please watch this space.”

Thank you very much to Chris Brammer at Ipswich Hospital for providing us with the video he created at the launch of the new Music Therapy Service on the Children’s Ward before Christmas.

Incredibly excited and proud to be able to announce the official launch of a brand new music therapy service for children and young people at Ipswich Hospital. We’re delighted that Jess Grant Celebration has been able to provide funding to initiate and support this new service at Ipswich so soon after the creation of Jess’ charity.
Daisy Williamson of Suffolk Music Therapy Services (pictured in the navy polo shirt on the right) will be providing Music Therapy at Ipswich Hospital 1 day per week, starting in January 2020. She will be working closely with the brilliant team at Ipswich Hospital, who have wanted Music Therapy on the ward for many years.
Today was very special: Daisy leading the carol singing on the keyboard and harp, with many of the patients, staff and Jess Grant Celebration representatives in great voice, or at least great sleigh bell jingling 🙂
Thank you so much to all of our supporters for all the fundraising efforts during 2019, please see our website and social media channels for news about our 2020 events which will enable us to continue to support this fantastic initiative at Ipswich hospital for many years to come.

Yay, Barry’s only gone and done it! Tremendous achievement, well done Barry! Not only has he trekked to the highest point on the continent of Africa, but he’s also wearing his Jess Grant Celebration t-shirt in the most far-flung destination one has been worn to date 😃
https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/barry-martin-kili

Drum roll please… We have a total for JessFest! Very excited to announce that JessFest has raised an incredible £5340. Wow, an amazing total that far exceeds our expectations and means that we are able to start putting our plans for music therapy into action right away. More updates on that very soon.
Many thanks and congratulations to everyone who has been involved in the success of the very first JessFest.
A massive thank you to all the fabulous acts who performed at JessFest & made the day such a wonderful experience.
JessFest has been made possible by tremendous support from Chris King at Planet Music. Chris selected the acts, provided equipment, & designed & sponsored promo materials. Thank you to Chris and Steve Calver at SR Epic Sound & Lighting, who worked incredibly hard behind the scenes before, during & after JessFest creating the perfect sound & light show for all the acts.
Huge thank you to Planet Music, SR Epic Sound & Lighting, Kesgrave Community Centre, ZED Security, Best Badges, Screens Printing, Austwick Berry, the NCS fundraisers, The Moving Plaice, Maureen Soames for their donations, sponsorship, discounted rates, & their expertise & time, & all the local businesses & friends who provided wonderful raffle prizes. Their generosity meant that all of our costs for JessFest were covered.
Thank you very much to Brian May for his very generous contribution for the online JessFest auction. The sale of the 5 signed items raised a whopping £954, & we’re very grateful to everyone who supported the auction.
Thank you to Jo Palmer, Kath Gosling & Suzanne Gledhill for their continued support. Many thanks to everyone who volunteered & helped on the day:- Jason Jacqui & Erin Yeomanson; Julie & Sophia Bradley; Kath Josh & Andrew; Jo Palmer; Jill McKay; Tony Felgate & Andy Flatman.
And of course, a massive thank you to everyone who came along to JessFest & showed your support. Without you, JessFest couldn’t have been the huge success it was. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who donated on our JustGiving page, with lovely messages of support for JessFest. That was an unexpected bonus, & really boosted our fundraising total.

Jess Grant Celebration charity are very excited to let you know that our Patron, Jess’ pal, Brian May wanted to support our fundraising for JessFest and has kindly donated 5 very special signed items to auction. We’re extremely grateful for Brian’s support and have just launched a 10 day Ebay auction at https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/jessgrantcelebration, running betweeen 18th and 28th September, and finishing to coincide with our charity music festival, JessFest. So, we’ll be able to announce how much has been raised at the end of the night.
The items Brian has signed consist of:- 2 stunning photographs of him playing at the Closing Ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games; his fabulous Red Special book; Queen + Adam Lambert’s North American Tour 2017 programme; Brian and Kerry Ellis’ CD ‘One Voice’ that Suffolk star Kerry has also signed.

Jess Grant Celebration charity is registered with EBay and PayPal, which means there will be no fees to pay for the auction, and 100% of the money raised will go directly to Jess’ charity.