Feelgood festival with nostalgic party vibe

A LADY Gaga tribute act will perform at a new summer wellbeing festival.

The line-up for the Hlth is Wlth festival, which will be held on Mill Meadows from Friday, May 31 to Sunday, June 2, was announced at a launch event at the Green Room in Market Place on Thursday last week.

It includes headliner Lady Gaga tribute Donna Marie, who will be joined by Katy Lye as Tina Turner and Whitney Houston tribute.

Festival founder Jayson Jaurigue said: “We are going for feelgood... all the big divas, all the big frontwomen.”

The Saturday night of the festival will be headlined by soul singer Rose Windross who will be joined by party band Block off the Wall, fronted by Adam Isaac, from Sonning Common, singer-songwriter John James Newman and the band Coyote performing an eighties mix tape .

Mr Jaurigue said: “We’re going for nostalgia, we’re going for the Eighties, Nineties and Noughties. You know, those club anthems, that party vibe when we’re in the nightclub. Who remembers the Oast House?” The Friday night of the festival will feature a bill of up to six comedians put together by Tom Ryan who runs Honk!, a monthly comedy night at the Relais Henley hotel.

The line-up currently includes Scottish comic Fern Brady, Capital XTRA radio host Leah Davis and Colin Hoult, from Ricky Gervais’s Afterlife.

Aside from the evening performances, the festival will comprise a range of activities aimed at improving wellbeing, including health talks, fitness and dance classes, walks and a range of food and drink.

The launch night was attended by the festival’s partners who include local gym and fitness spaces and local health and wellbeing businesses. A raffle was held in aid of the festival’s beneficiary Riverside Counselling, a charity based in Northfield End that offers affordable counselling.

Tamsin Napier Munn, who compèred the evening, said: “Why this? Why now? We want to feel connected. We want to have more of a community spirit and perhaps more humanity. Who wants to feel more joy? Yeah. Who wants to have more inspiration or be inspired and more fun — that’s what this is all about. It’s all about the community. It’s all about getting together and supporting each other.”

The town council is supporting the festival. Mayor Kellie Hinton said: “It’s great to bring residents together and get them active, get them outside and get local businesses involved as well.”