‘Spirit of Mounts Bay’ Festival to raise money for Penlee RNLI
The ‘Spirit of Mounts Bay’ Festival, a celebration of flowers, music and the arts will take place at St Mary’s Church, Chapel Street, Penzance from Saturday 28 May to Wednesday 1 June and will be open from 10.30am to 5pm.
St Mary’s Church will be open to visitors for 5 days with an exhibition of floral displays, musical entertainment, poetry and readings, all celebrating the ‘Spirit of Mounts Bay’. Entry is free but donations will be split between the RNLI Penlee Lifeboat Station Appeal and Penzance churches youth projects.
The festival will be opened between 6-7pm on Friday 27 May by Coxswain Patch Harvey and Eric Taylor, Fundraising Chairman at RNLI Penlee.
One of the many flower displays inside the church will be a replica of the Penlee Severn class lifeboat Ivan Ellen. This replica will form the centrepiece of a larger RNLI Penlee heritage and photographic display celebrating the stations long and meritorious lifesaving history – it will require at least 1,000 flowers to decorate and will take a full two days to create.
The special guest at the youth concert on Saturday night will be local musician, Joe Holtaway, from the folk band The Sea Kings.
In November 2014 Joe took his paddleboard out into Mounts Bay to watch and enjoy the sunset. Unfortunately he drifted out too far and was alone on the sea in the dark for six hours before he was rescued, rigid with the cold, by the volunteer crew of the Penlee Lifeboat. Joe will be telling his story and will be joining talented young musicians from local schools to sing a few songs.
On Sunday night the popular Mousehole Male Voice Choir, whose special charity is the RNLI, will be performing – both concerts are entirely by donation to raise money for the Penlee Lifeboat Station Appeal and local youth projects.
This promises to be a very colourful, entertaining, interesting and fun festival for all ages – definitely not to be missed!
RNLI media contacts
For more information please telephone Elaine Trethowan, RNLI Volunteer Lifeboat Press Officer on 0770 466 9406 or [email protected] or Emma Haines, Public Relations Manager for the South on 0778 666 8847 or [email protected] or contact RNLI Public Relations on 01202 336789
Key facts about the RNLI
The RNLI charity saves lives at sea. Its volunteers provide a 24-hour search and rescue service around the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland coasts. The RNLI operates 238 lifeboat stations in the UK and Ireland and more than 240 lifeguard units on beaches around the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI is independent of Coastguard and government and depends on voluntary donations and legacies to maintain its rescue service. Since the RNLI was founded in 1824, its lifeboat crews and lifeguards have saved over 146,000 lives.
Learn more about the RNLI
For more information please visit the RNLI website or Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube. News releases, videos and photos are available on the News Centre.
Contacting the RNLI - public enquiries
Members of the public may contact the RNLI on 0300 300 9990 (UK) or 1800 991802 (Ireland) or by email.