CHESHIRE’s first music festival for children with learning difficulties has been hailed a resounding success.

Petty Pool Music Festival, which took place Petty Pool Vocational College in Sandiway on Thursday, June 29, was organised by students from the college and Dee Banks School.

As part of the National Citizen Service scheme in partnership with the Youth Federation, students were asked to run and partake in a Social Action Project within their community.

The students came up with the innovative idea to host a music festival for specifically for individuals with learning disabilities.

Nicola Colenso, director of student services at Petty Pool College, took the lead in organising the festival, which was organised in around five weeks.

“It went from a small idea to a very big one quite quickly,” she said.

Around 350 students from nine specialist educational schools from Cheshire East and West attended the event on Thursday.

The free festival featured seven live acts and a variety of entertainment, all of whom wavered their appearance fee as there was no budget for the event.

News of the festival has spread all around the world after a BBC report went viral. At the time of going to press the online video has been seen by 4.7 million.

Nicola said: “It’s gone big. I’ve had a guy in America offering to donate a bubble kit for next year.

“It’s really great. I think one of the reason people are sharing is because it is something there is a demand for out there.

“They think, we can do this, my son or daughter would love to do something like that.”

Feedback for the festival has been overwhelmingly positive, and Nicola said she couldn’t be more proud of everyone involved.

She said: “That night I said, I’m so proud of everybody for their input. It was a massive team effort, from the Petty Poll staff to the students.

“Just giving people these experiences that everybody else takes for granted, like going to Glastonbury or V Festival.

“I think they got that, they had these experiences, so I went home thinking, I’ve done something good.”

While a decision has not been decided whether the festival will return, Nicola said she would find it difficult to say no.