What a great three days in the sun. The heat certainly changed how we operated, but church members stepped up and we were able to give out hundreds of bottles of cool water and ice pops (or poles as some call them!) along with sun cream and all for free. Just in case people weren’t sure they were provided with a neon green Fringe Fest wristband reading “Fringe Fest VIP. God loves you” giving free access to everything all weekend.

These days town is not as busy as it was during the festival, but over the weekend several hundred people connected with us in some meaningful way.
But we knew it was going to be a good one, when in the weeks leading up to the event, we got very creative, transforming our God loves you sign into a festival field, complete with mainstage, crowds of people and tents.

As the weekend went on, people took the chance for some shade by coming inside the building, enjoying a cool drink, a phone charge, free wifi and a chance to do some craft on the craft table operated by Tony & Suzi Anderson.They could also write a prayer on a leaf and tie it onto our prayer tree.

Outside, we had great music on our mainstage from local bands No Excuses and STOP, along with a special Fringe Festival service on Sunday morning, with contemporary Christian music and testimony.
On Saturdsy, we also had a visit from Bluey’s sister Bingo (Those of you with children will know!) and plenty of photo opportunities there. Face painting was provided for free by Elinor Johnston, literally brightening up a lot of faces over the weekend.

Minister Tony Murphy was delighted with the way the weekend went. “It is well known that we do all this for free, to demonstrate in actions what it says on our famous sign, “God loves you!”
This year more than ever, the church members showed incredible generosity, providing all the food, drink, time and equipment for free, really reflecting the generous heart of Jesus.
As well as people from all over Europe, we were delighted to welcome a lot of local people. This is important, because we want our community to know that the church is not just for the “religious few” but for anyone on life’s journey. Our experience is that God meets us right where we’re at.“

CLICK HERE for This year’s highlights video

Download your souvenir programme here
page 1 https://ctr-iow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Fringe-Fest-programme-2026-page-1.pdf
page 2 https://ctr-iow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Fringe-Fest-programme-2026-page-2.pdf

click here for a full playlist of previous Fringe Fest videos