Hundreds of people descended on the annual Family Fun Night in New Brighton on Friday night in what the organisers describe as a ‘fun and safe alternative to trick of treating’. Children and not so young children played carnival style games, enjoyed the various inflatables, mechanical surfboard, listened to local youth bands perform, ate from the food trucks and took home some of the 30 kg of lollies that were given away. The event was ran at Grace Vineyard Beach Campus, in partnership with Youth Alive Trust, with the support of key sponsorship Home Foundation. One of the organisers, James Ridpath, manager of Youth Alive Trust said “The place was buzzing! I don’t know if that was the lollies, the candy floss or just the amount of fun activities on offer – but all the smiles and thank you’s as people left, made it all worthwhile”.

The event has been running in New Brighton for nearly 20 years, and it took over 50 volunteers from Grace Vineyard Church and Youth Alive Trust to run all the activities. Volunteer coordinator, Hannah Donald, said “we had people as young as 12 and as old as, err, somewhere in their 80s, helping run games, facepainting, cooking the BBQ, running the photobooth – the team effort was phenomenal, and that’s one of the hightlights of the whole event”.

Massive thanks to our major sponsor Home Foundation, and other supporters including The Warehouse, Kairos Food Rescue, Compassion Trust, Amplify School of Music and the many many volunteers who ran the activities on the night – you were amazing! Check out the Photo Album and this years Highlights Video: