Kenny Fest celebrates life of Hartlepool mum-of-three Nicola Kenny

Mother of three and community campaigner Nicola Kenny passed away in January after a battle against cervical cancer.

She was just 43.

Nicola, who was a teaching assistant at St Bega's Primary School and member of the bar staff at Hartlepool United, was a passionate hospital campaigner with the Save Our Hospital and Fighting 4 Hartlepool Hospital groups.

Covid restrictions in place at the time meant her devoted family were not able to give her the send off they and she had planned.

But Kenny Fest, a celebration of her life, was held on Saturday - what would have been her 44th birthday – featuring live bands and singers on stage, great food and children’s entertainment.

The event, held in and around The Pot House pub on the Headland, featured live music to mark Nicola’s love of going to festivals with kids Kaleb, 24, Joel, 21, and 11-year-old Zac.

Headliners Eli played music from the likes of Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, The Jam and more, while the line up also featured local singer songwriter Charlotte Grayson performing her new single and rising Hartlepool musician Michael Gallagher, fresh from The Isle of Wight Festival.

Liverpool band RATS and another local band Leopard Rays also performed.

There was street food on offer and carnival rides to entertain the children, while Hartlepool Carnival provided the stage and sound system.

Kaleb said the family had been delighted with how the day had gone, adding: "Everything went as much according to plan as it could have done and the weather was really good – you don’t really expect that kind of sunshine at the back end of September,” he said.

"One of mum’s friends was the DJ, so he was playing all the old songs she used to like.

"And there was a good turn-out. We had just over 200 people there. It went really well.”

The event was free but collections were held for for Alice House Hospice which cared for Nicola.

Kaleb added: “We don’t know how much we raised yet but we had five buckets out and people were being very generous, so we hope it will be a good amount.”

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