Bury St Edmunds fun day at Hardwick Primary School described as ‘a great event’ for a ‘lovely community’

A community event featuring a primary school football tournament has been described as a ‘very, very special day’.

This year the annual May Bank Holiday Fun Day at Hardwick Primary School in Bury St Edmunds coincided with the weekend’s Coronation celebrations, with funding meaning the inflatables were free for families.

Organised by the Southgate Community Partnership in conjunction with the school and Southgate Church, Monday’s event featured a Year 2 football tournament with 10 local teams, stalls, activities and entertainment, with hundreds of people attending.

A Friends of Hardwick Primary tombola was raising money for the school, there were displays by Jo Brown's Zumba and the Hotshot Twirlers Team, live music from The Gray Project and puppet shows from Southgate Church.

Organiser Andy Abbott, chair of the Southgate Community Partnership, which runs Southgate Community Centre, said: “It’s a great event for the community. Southgate, Hardwick and Nowton are such a lovely community.

“It’s just a lovely, lovely community spirit and it brings it all together, and to make it free – free entry, free rides – it’s very important in this economic world we are now in and it just brightens everybody’s day up. It just made it a very, very special day. I was really pleased and really proud.”

The football tournament involved the following primary schools: Abbots Green (two teams), Sebert Wood (two mixed ability teams), Guildhall Feoffment (three teams including a Year 1 team), Hardwick, St Edmundsbury and Thurston.

It was won by FC Abbots Green, with Sebert Wood Rovers coming second on points and Sebert Wood Albion and Thurston Rockets tying for third.

Medals and the winner’s trophy were presented by Cllrs Patrick Chung and Sarah Stamp, whose town council Coronation locality funding paid for these and enabled the inflatables to be free.