Weymouth’s Bayside Festival for the Olympics has gone into liquidation. But churches from the area are helping shocked stallholders and security staff. Festival organisers closed their gates on Friday, blaming poor attendance. The Rev Anni Douglas, co-ordinator of Weymouth and Portland churches Refresh 2012 said, ‘We sent our volunteers round the site to see how people were feeling, listening to them and providing refreshments. They really appreciated it and we had a good response,’ she added. Refresh 2012, set up by the local churches to provide activities, youth events and exhibitions at the Olympic sailing site, were also hit by the closure. Refresh 2012 had offered to meet with the festival organisers Mainsail Ltd and the borough council on Friday to try to rescue the event. But their offer to mobilise an army of 300 local church volunteers to run the site and keep it going fell on deaf ears.
Pray: that the Christians in Weymouth will still be able to serve the community with offers of God’s love. (1Pet.4:10)