Hundreds expected at 'Molliefest' fund-raising music festival (From Watford Observer)

'Molliefest' brings music and charity to a Chorleywood field

2:00pm Thursday 13th September 2012 in News By Adam Binnie, Senior Reporter

A charity music festival is being held in Chorleywood today, to help a family raise more than half a million pounds for medical treatment.

Mollie Matthews was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer of the nervous system, in December 2011.

She needs more than £500,000 to help fund specialist treatment in America, and to help raise money, the Showmans Guild has organised Molliefest, in a field in Green Street.

Long traffic queues for the festival were compounded by a crash on the M25 this morning and a burst water main last night.

The guild, formerly known as the Van Dweller Association, was set up to represent travelling showmen who make money at funfairs.

The event, which is only for Showmans Guild members and not open to the public, takes place until 11pm tonight, in Smiths Field.

About 1,000 to 2,000 people are expected to attended, with many camping overnight and leaving tomorrow.

Richard Thompson, from the Chorleywood Residents' Association, said: "Hopefully if anyone knows how to run an event like this properly, it's got to be a group of showmen.

"We hope very much that the Showmans Guild has a successful event, and that their temporary presence and hosting of Molliefest in Chorleywood will raise a lot money for the Mollie Matthews campaign.

"We also hope the event will not cause too much disruption for the locality, and that the hours that have been agreed for the event are adhered to."

Mr Thompson raised concerns over the risk of noise from the site travelling across the railway line into the Chenies Estate and Chorleywood west, or neighbours on Green Street and Orchard Drive.

Although the event is taking place in Chorleywood, the majority of the site is in fact in Buckinghamshire.

The licence applications for the event were submitted to Chiltern District Council and forwarded to Chiltern Environmental Health and to Thames Valley Police.

The field is licensed for more than 2,000 people and a Facebook page set up for the event suggests 1,200 will attend, out of 2,600 invited.

There will be a Motown Cafe, bar, dance tent, market, dunk tank, a food court and a main stage.

Among the bands taking part are Supernova , Surburban Dirts , Racheal Hawk and The Remedies, the Pat Brooker Band and the Tom Jones Band.