ROBERTS Bakery is helping children rise to the occasion at a major music festival.

Eight hundred Northwich children are in the final stages of preparation for the first Northwich Sings music festival, which takes place on June 7, 13, 14 and 15 at Northwich Memorial Court.

Pupils from 29 local schools will take part in the event, which has been organised by the Northwich Education Partnership.

Roberts Bakery has got behind the festival with a donation to the tune of £2,500.

Fourth generation Roberts’ family member Lindsay Occleston dropped in to one of the participating schools - Lostock Gralam C of E Primary School - to deliver T-shirts specially created for the event.

Every child will wear one of the T-shirts when they sing at the festival next month.

Lindsay met pupils from two of the primary schools which will be taking part in the festival.

The children were accompanied by their headteachers - Gill Barker from Lostock Primary and Cathy Lord from Victoria Road Primary. Lindsay presented the T-shirts to Andrew Ross, chairman of Northwich Education Partnership and headteacher at Rudheath Primary Academy.

Gill Barker said: “We have a long association with Roberts Bakery and hundreds of our pupils have taken part in the Roberts’ schools bread-making programme over the years.

“We’re delighted that Roberts has pledged support for the first Northwich Sings festival, which is a huge event bringing 800 youngsters together.

“The children have been working very hard preparing for their performances and it promises to be a spectacular event.”

Lindsay Occleston said: “Community is at the heart of our business and we welcome opportunities to develop deeper links within it.

“We’ve been involved with many of the schools participating in Northwich Sings for many years, so it was only natural for us to support the event itself.

“This will be the first time Northwich has seen an inter-schools festival on this scale, and I’m really looking forward to seeing so many children perform together at a landmark venue.”

The theme for Northwich Sings is ‘transformation/moving forward’ to reflect the change and development taking place in Northwich.