01/06/2026
A massive thank you to everyone who attended this year's Joseph Lappin Festival in celebration of Joseph Lappin's memory, our brilliant Old Swan community, and the friendships, support and sense of belonging that make the Joseph Lappin Centre such a special place!
It was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the music, activities, food, stalls and entertainment throughout the day.
The biggest thank you of all goes to our volunteers. The Joseph Lappin Festival simply would not happen without you. From delivering thousands of leaflets across Old Swan, setting up before the event, helping visitors, serving refreshments, selling raffle tickets, tidying up afterwards and taking on countless jobs behind the scenes, you made the day possible. Your time, energy, enthusiasm and commitment to our community are at the heart of everything we do, and we are incredibly grateful for every single one of you.
Thank you to our dedicated team of staff too, who have spent the month planning and preparing for the festival.
Thank you also to our DJ, all of our performers, stallholders, funders, sponsors and partners who helped make the event such a success. Thank you to Deaf Active for building and running our Crazy Golf, Priority Youth Project for bringing their entertainment bus and for our local PCSOs Mark and Andy who did Bike Marking for anyone who came on a bike.
We would also like to thank Councillors William Shortall, Hayley Todd and Mark Johnson for providing funding to help make this year's festival possible. It was great to see all three of them at the festival. We were especially pleased to welcome William Shortall in his new role as Lord Mayor of Liverpool.
We're delighted to share that the festival raised just over £1,700, which will go directly towards running services and activities at the Joseph Lappin Centre. These funds help us provide projects such as our Food Pantry, youth activities, wellbeing groups, Memory Café, fitness sessions, gardening projects, family activities and community support throughout the year.
A massive thank you as well to Michelle and her fantastic kitchen team Bay Tree Caterers Liverpool & Bay Tree Cookery Academy CIC. With the money raised through the kitchen, Michelle will be providing a free family meal event during the summer holidays, helping local families come together over good food. More details will be announced nearer the time.
We're also thrilled that so many people joined us for the first time. We hope this was the start of a long relationship with the Joseph Lappin Centre and that we'll see many of you again at our youth activities, community events, wellbeing groups, family sessions and the many other opportunities we offer throughout the year.
Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the festival. Every ticket bought, raffle entered, burger eaten and donation made helps us continue supporting local people and bringing our community together.
We hope you had a fantastic day and look forward to seeing you again next year!