INTERVIEW: First 'Lifefest' music festival in Lancaster to raise funds for suicide prevention

Tuesday, 19 August 2025 15:23

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

Liam Mulgrew, Maddy Howard, John Rawcliffe and Andy Reilly from Lifefest

A music festival promoting the importance of mental health and preventing suicide will be held in Lancaster this week.

Lifefest will be held at the George and Dragon pub on St George's Quay from August 20 to August 25.

The event will raise funds to provide benches around the Lancaster and Morecambe District with information and advice, with the aim of helping people who are thinking about taking their own life.

Lifefest is being run on behalf of The District Mental Health Forum and a local community group, Adults with Autism.

We spoke to Andy Reilly, Maddy Howard and John Rawcliffe from Adults with Autism, and Liam Mulgrew from the George and Dragon about Lifefest

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 the University mental health team among many others.

Andy Reilly, one of the Lifefest organising team, said: "The Forum meets up every three months and at the last meeting it was discussed that World Suicide Prevention Day on September 10 was soon approaching and they would like to mark this somehow.

"It was decided to raise funds to provide benches at all the suicide hotspots around the district, the idea being 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 starts on Wednesday August 20 at 7pm with a quiz at the George and Dragon hosted by Johnny Sykes and Anthony Livingstone.

There will also be raffle tickets for sale with the draw being done on the following Monday.

The main event kicks off on the Friday at 5pm with live music from Stonecutter (8pm) to round off the evening.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday from 12pm, there will be an outside bar, along with a BBQ with all proceeds going to the charity.

On Saturday, live music starts from 3pm with the 44s, Reborn Generation will be playing at 6pm in the beer garden (weather dependent) and Matt and Saxon will wrap up the evening inside at 9pm.

On Sunday, the George will open at noon. Live music starts at 3pm with Mutt and Jefferson Moore is playing at 9pm.

On Bank Holiday Monday, the George will open at noon. Solway Express open the show at 2pm and Peter Tait will by playing at 5pm followed by an open mic session with Matt and Saxon.

Lifefest will wrap up at last orders with a raffle draw.

More information on Adults with Autism can be found at their Facebook page HERE.

*If you need someone to talk to, call Samaritans on 116 123, at any time. Calls are free.

More information HERE.