Family-friendly festival to be held raising funds for Homeless Street Angels and St Gemma's Hospice in Leeds

Co-founder of Homeless Street Angels Shelley Joyce has been a DJ for more than 24 years. 

And this year, a couple of her friends, Andy Hunt and Mark Foster, have come together to organise a day of family-friendly fun raising funds for the Leeds charity and St Gemma’s Hospice, an independent charity in Moortown providing expert palliative care for more than 45 years.  

Get a bespoke headline round-up, as well as breaking updates, when you sign up to the Yorkshire Evening Post’s free emails

Named Angel Fest 2024, the event, which will take place on Saturday, May 25 at Moortown Rugby Club, will feature DJs, delicious food and an ice cream van, bouncy castles, stalls and face painting. 

The outdoor line-up includes Mark Holiday, Marc Wilke, James Patta, Curtis Zack, Russ Richardson, Andy Hunt, Joolz Collins, Darren Hick, Sam Pearson, Sy Burndred, Bassminx. 

The indoor line-up includes Melodies DJ Academy, DJ Pottzy, Mike Speed, Rebs, Scott Lees and Martin Wood. 

Shelley said she is “excited” to also be joining the outdoor line-up at Angel Fest.

She added: “I am so pleased that the event is supporting Homeless Street Angels and St Gemma’s Hospice, as often our paths cross as charities and they are absolutely amazing at what they do. 

“One of our guys who I have supported on the streets sadly passed away a couple of years ago and I spent some time visiting him in his final days at St Gemma’s and the team there were wonderful and made his final days as comfortable as they could. So it’s a great honour to have this collaboration.

“Some amazing DJs from and around Leeds are donating their time to attend the event and hopefully, it will be a sellout.”

At present, Homeless Street Angels feed more than 100 people every Thursday on its weekly outreach and has more than 600 families on register for food parcels.

Shelley said that it is fundraisers like this that will help the team continue to “do what they love to do”. 

Stephanie Jackson, of St Gemma’s Hospice, said: “We believe everyone has the right to compassionate, expert care. 

“St Gemma’s care is about living well and dying well, helping patients and families take back control of their lives. 

“We provide individualised, supportive care for people with life-threatening illnesses, both in the Hospice, and patients’ homes.

 “Our services are open to everyone, and completely free of charge to patients. However our services are not free to provide, with most of our running costs being raised by our fabulous supporters across the UK. 

"We’re incredibly grateful to Mark and Andy, the organisers of Angel Fest, for choosing to raise funds for us alongside the wonderful Street Angels charity. 

“This will not only help to support patient care, but also make every moment matter for the people living with a terminal diagnosis and their family and friends. Thank you to each and every one of you for supporting us.”

Find out more information via the Homeless Street Angels website.