King’s Lynn churches bless thousands at Celebrate
2018: Celebrate King’s Lynn, a completely free fun day hosted by the town’s churches, experienced a massive turnout on Saturday, June 9 with more people benefiting from the event than in any previous year.
On Saturday, June 9, 10am-4pm the churches of King’s Lynn hosted Celebrate, a large-scale family fun day held in The Walks parkland in the centre of the West Norfolk town.
Celebrate King’s Lynn is an annual opportunity for the town’s churches and Christian organisations to bless the local community with completely free entertainment, food and activities.
This year the weather was overcast but warm and families came out in their hundreds to enjoy the free music, inflatables, games, crafts and food. The event attracted a greater turnout than in its previous two years with thousands of local people of all ages spending a significant part of the day in the park taking pleasure in the many attractions.
Situated in a large open space in The Walks, tents and gazebos housing fun activities marked the perimeter along with a temporary stage, a bungee run, go-karting, jousting, sumo wrestling and an inflatable slide. In the middle of the field families wandered around happily eating, playing giant games and enjoying the feel-good environment.
Music was provided by the Matt McCleary, King’s Lynn Street Church and The Flat Earth Disciples. In the morning the band on stage sang up-beat, contemporary worship songs such as ‘My Lighthouse’ and ‘Build Your Kingdom Here’ which drifted across the field and beyond enticing people in.
New to the event this year was a barbeque which proved highly popular with the crowds. The team from The Church in the Woottons worked hard to serve a seemingly never-ending queue with free burgers. After indulging in complimentary cakes and burgers, visitors could take advantage of a free health check - another stand new to Celebrate for 2018. Here, courtesy of King’s Lynn Adventist Church, people could have indicators such as their BMI, blood sugar and peak flow checked.
The King’s Centre ran a mini Olympics. Children alongside their parents participated in a series of eight activities including a sack race, target practice, basket hoops and a hockey slalom in order to win sweets. Each activity was manned by a member of the church who actively encouraged each child with praise and enthusiasm.
Crazy Bananas, also known as Sally Beadle, created balloon animals and provided circus equipment to play with. Visitors could have glitter tattoos painted on their arms by Cornerstone, King’s Lynn Baptist Church, spend time doing crafts with King’s Glory Church, hook-a-duck with St Faith’s Church, Gaywood and play Tin Can Alley with the King’s Lynn Church of the Nazarene. Free facepainting was on offer, as was prayer from Norfolk Healing Rooms.
People could also see a Bible story performed by the Open the Book team and go inside the mobile, interactive Key to Life? experience. King’s Lynn Foodbank, Christians Against Poverty, Word on the Wash, Bridge for Heroes and the Christian Motorcycle Association were also present to chat with and promote their services.
Following the event King's Lynn Celebrate Organiser Maarten Klem said: “Celebrate 2018 was another year of God’s provision going beyond what we asked for. We had a warm day to show God’s love practically, through local Christian bands, church stalls, free inflatable fun and free refreshments which all went down a treat. Thank you to everyone who came to serve and the King’s Lynn community who came to make it another huge success!"