Crowds celebrate peace for the 36th year

Mid Warwickshire Amnesty Group chairman Will Roberts with 'prisoner' Ola Idzikowska at the charity's stand at the Leamington Peace Festival.

While the event has become well known for its range of live music and inventive vegetarian and vegan food, organisers this year were keen to remind festival-goers of its central theme.

So as well as the usual variety of music, stalls and workshops, this year there was a focus on highlighting peace movements around the time of the outbreak of the First World War - and the new Peace in Action forum, for which the Central Warwickshire branch of the National Childbirth Trust, Push Projects and Cord were shortlisted to take part to compete for the support of the festival over the coming year. Those watching the forum voted by narrow margin for Push Projects, which supports young people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender.

Dave Steele of the organising committee said: “It was a great weekend with some really good workshops about conscientious objection and some outstanding music.

“The presence of police and marshalls had a positive effect. We have a fantastic partnership with Warwick District Council on this issue and we have been working together on trying to make the festival more enjoyable, calm and peaceful for everyone.”