Mini Feel Good Festival - May 2026

2026 has been a productive year for us at LEAP Together. We’ve already launched our new Seed Libraries in Johnstone and Beith, opened Granny Mutch, our new charity shop, and carried out a successful fundraising campaign for the Larder. It was important for us to ensure we didn’t leave the Feel Good Festival behind. So despite being stretched we delivered a vibrant mini programme of events in May. Thanks to everyone who participated. Here is a look at what we were able to host:

Our first event was led by local author, presenter and leadership coach Dr Vanessa Collingridge and hosted at Colette's Cairn. The event was a sell out and the café was packed to the brim as we all listened to Vanessa’s words of wisdom on the subject “How To Make An Impact”. We all stood a little bit taller when we left!

For the nature lovers, local photographer Becky Duncan from Open Aye led a walk through the bluebells at Parkhill Woods and showed the participants how to get the best results from your camera phones. 

On Friday evening, Lochwinnoch native, Cheryl Kay from Geez Peace, led a class on Nervous System Reset in the Bowling Club. Again it was fully booked and she led us though yoga, breathwork, release and by the end her meditation had us in the perfect state of relaxation. 

The following morning, choreographer Jane Simpson had something faster in mind and led a class in Connected Movement and dance. It was exciting and empowering all at once. 

On a gentler note, Gill Bell had a group for Stitch Meditation aka Mindful Hand Sewing. Using scraps of fabric and thread they all created something beautiful  while creating a very calm space around them. 

On the final day of the mini Feel Good Festival we were lucky to have Jo James back again for her performance reading and songs. Jo performed three short stories from Jojo Moyes book “Paris for One” and had us all spellbound following the dramatic and funny storylines and her array of accents. Her songs were a delight too. 

The last event of the day and the Festival took place in the sunshine of Lochhead Gardens. For the kids we had crafts and a wonderful treasure hunt devised by Bora from Diggin' It using the Ogham Alphabet. Kids could find the clues, learn about trees and then take home a strawberry plant in a pot they had decorated. For adults we had the talented artist Michelle Winslow demonstrating willow weaving and she showed us how to make our own bird feeders. Everyone that took part took at least two beautiful feeders away with them. 

We are also once again blown away by all the talented people that we have living in this area. We look forward to doing it all again next year, hopefully with even more on offer. If you took part in any of these events, we would love to hear your feedback, which helps us improve and also report to funders on the impact of any funding. Click here to access our form: https://forms.gle/mDGecGnRiM6xPsKTA

Going forward, we would love to be able to bring back some of our bigger events such as the Feel good fair, the halloween procession and The Gathering. We really hope our Granny Mutch Charity Shop & Community Space helps to generate the income required to keep these events running at affordable rates to allow everyone to access them.