A six-day festival will return to a Lancaster venue to help raise funds and awareness for suicide prevention.
The second annual LifeFest will be held at the George and Dragon on St George's Quay from Wednesday August 26 to Monday August 31.
LifeFest was created with the mission to bring people together and to raise funds to provide 'Hope Benches' round the district.
The idea was that each of these benches would have resource information on them providing advice and providing phone numbers of organisations that could help people who are feeling suicidal.
LifeFest was held in 2025 on behalf of The District Mental Health Forum and a local community group, Adults with Autism.
The Forum is made up of around 20 community groups from around the district including Adults with Autism, The Samaritans, various men’s groups, NHS mental health groups and Lancaster University mental health team among many others.
The team behind LifeFest presented a cheque for £2330 to local mental health charity Positive Futures after the six-day event last year, which included live music, a quiz and raffle.
This was enough to provide five Hope Benches around the Lancaster and Morecambe District, near Carlisle Bridge on St George's Quay and at Half Moon Bay in Heysham, with others going in Middleton Nature Reserve, Warton Crag and Lancaster University.
A Hope Bench installed near Carlisle Bridge, Lancaster
This year's LifeFest 2026 will aim to raise more money for the District Health Forum to carry on focusing on suicide prevention.
It will begin with a Quiz Night on Wednesday August 26, and continue with live music throughout the weekend from names including Jamie Walker, The Deal, Molly Warburton, Jonny Sykes with Cuthberts Clan, Matt Jones and Solway Express.
During LifeFest there will also be pizza, karaoke, a barbecue, DJ and, on August 31, a bank holiday family fun day to round off the festival.
You can donate to LifeFest HERE. As we went to press, £475 had been raised from the online page.
Ahead of this year's LifeFest, local band The 44s have also released a new single in aid of the event, which is available to download at just £2 with the money raised going towards LifeFest charities.
The single is available HERE.
Read more: New bench in Lancaster offers Hope to people in Mental Health Awareness Week - Beyond Radio
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