Comments from Happy Soul Festival

Comments from Attendees:

"In my opinion this years' festival truly captured the local spirit and the purpose of the festival. I think the events were wide reaching and diverse to capture the interest of our whole community. Thank you as always for all your support."

"Hi, I’d just like to say I really enjoyed Happy Soul Festival @ The Grand. Beechcroft choir & Mica Paris were brilliant, and the compere comedian was great! The Asian children’s act made one realise religion can be a persons link in life, I did not realise that Jesus was part of their make up. The trio with drum & cornets/trumpets made me wish to hear the sound of the Egyptian’s pharaoh’s trumpets!! I hope the events were successful for your organisation & look forward to next year."

"I had to thank you for opportunity of seeing "Land of the Free" yesterday - it was so nice to be in a room with people who appreciate that it's not the getting angry about injustice that's wrong, but the injustice itself! And the film was really good, too!"

"It was a great event and captured the spirit of HSF. And the teaching from the Chefs was amazing!"

"Just checked into the website. Very Impressive ;) and it looks like many of the events have sold out....and are selling out. Well Done :)"

Comments from Hosts:

"It was a good evening, I enjoyed doing it."Hari Sewell 

"THANK YOU ALL for such a brilliant event which yet again captured the true spirit of the Happy Soul Festival.
I know just how hard and well you all worked to make this a positive event in Kingston following on from the other, major, HSF event in Kingston in March. The feedback I am getting across Kingston and Richmond is that we have made many new friends and built on our existing good community links. So the future is positive."

Comments from Contributors:

"On behalf of the Ham Multicultural Women's Group, I would like to thank you all for your generous support in helping to make the Ham event on Saturday a great success. We had a fantastic turnout, with an estimated 150 people. In fact, we had to literally drag people out of the hall when trying to close at 7pm!
The group has continued to receive extremely positive feedback and are now very much encouraged to repeat the success in the future. The Chair, Roshna Pashtoon, has asked me especially to thank the Happy Soul Festival team and the Trust for giving them this opportunity, for trusting them to deliver, and for the funding"

"I wanted to say thanks again for helping me set up my stall. I felt welcome and included, and I warmly appreciate your efforts on day."

"A number of people have been in touch to check I survived the Tooting 5k last Sunday. I’m pleased to say I got round in one piece and had a great day (as did my daughters, who ran the 1k children’s race)." MP, Sadiq Khan

"I want to congratulate you and our volunteers for not only for keeping the show on the road but for making the Festival a remarkable success.  Happy Soul Festival has not only entertained many many people over numerous events, but I believe it has made the issues of mental health and wellbeing alive and real for all of those people who attended our events.  The feedback so far has been very positive and we shall evaluate it more carefully in due course." 

"Thank you for all the hard work and commitment you have put into this year's Festival."

"Just wanted to say many thanks for allowing me to show my artwork at Vestry Hall. I found out some interesting information from a few people. Oh and i also wanted to say that the film I saw Sindutai Sapkal was absolutely fantastic. I had lots of tears rolling down my eyes. I once again think that the work that all of you are doing is absolutely fantastic and meaningful for many people like myself and would love to slowly get more involved in helping other people through my personal experience. I also look forward to being involved in the happy soul festival in the future."

"Just want to say that the crew were excellent. I explained the situation and they totally took it on board and made the changes. The crew were excellent; they worked so hard and hardly braked. I am really impressed with them and look forward to seeing the finish product. You must use them again. They are friendly funny and true professionals."

Comments from Volunteers:

"This has been the most overwhelmingly fantastic experience for me.  Over 30 hours of pure magic that I didn’t want to end.  I feel honoured & privileged to have been able to play a small but, perhaps, significant role in this year’s festival. I brought my own brand of zany humour, determined effort and (I hope) professionalism to the proceedings while benefitting hugely from those of my fellow volunteers and HSF staff.  I have learned much, laughed and enjoyed much more, made special friendships and I have felt loved, appreciated and very much a part of this special team or, may I say, ‘family’.  Being involved with Happy Soul Festival this year, hopefully only the first of many years’ involvement has, in truth, brought happiness to my soul."