Dear Friends
I hope that you and your loved ones are well at this very difficult and challenging time. If there is anything that you think I could do to make life a little better for you, please do let me know.
The drop in at home is meeting weekly, sometimes more often, via email, phone, text, mail, whatever is best for people. It is likely that it will have to continue to meet in this format for a long time. Let’s Talk Epsom has also become a virtual community.
At the beginning of this year I did not think that I would be writing to you about state-of-the-art technology, but it has been and is a very different year. As you may imagine, we have been thinking about how, if at all, the Festival could go ahead this year and if it would be possible to hold any part of it at St Barnabas. Bearing in mind the Lockdown and the likelihood of Social Isolation for many months to come, the Trustees have decided to change the format of this year’s Festival. It will still go ahead, but sadly not as a physical Festival centred on St Barnabas Church as in previous years. We have been offered (by one of my nephews!) the use of a free online streaming service for the talks and activities. This platform will also be able to host the art competition and anything else that we want to include. We would plan to set up a Youtube channel as well so that the talks and activities would be available to people who could not view them live, and a ‘Festival at home’ pack for people who have no access to any form of internet or social media. More details will hopefully soon be available but I would be delighted if you could email me any thoughts as to how the Festival can, in our usual fashion, be the best ever despite some radical changes this year. Please also let me know if you would be interested in meeting via zoom for Festival planning meetings.
Thank you so much. We are of course very much looking forward to being back at St Barnabas for the 2021 Festival.
With kindest regards.
Sue
Sue Bull