GoodGym Ealing and Hanwell Hootie go together like salt and pepper. Each year, the famous free music festival run by local people, attracts thousands of music lovers who swarm in Hanwell to hear emerging young bands - and our team is around to support that brilliant volunteer-led initiative! No wonder why the numbers picked up at tonight's group run to the Brent Lodge Park's Stables to help the Hootie organisers: June and Andrea.

Since the Hootie was in less than three weeks, it was about time to start organising the equipment stored at the Stables: mostly furniture and banners. But here is a twist:the storage space was struck by an unexpected leak, resulting in damp floor in one of the rooms! The solution: all the things had to be brought into the yard, where Andrea would triage them and decide which items were going back inside and which the Stables needed to part with. It was a perfect challenge for 8 GoodGymers with an hour to spare!

The runners Mohamed, Steph Ducat, Sevan and Kash were glad to see regulars Claire and Madhan again after a short break and welcome a pair of new starters: Erin and Nick. The two could not have chosen a better group run task: local to them, contributing to a beloved Hanwell event, and challenging and fun at the same time!

While part of the team set off to move the furniture in varying states outside, others got rock-and-rolling (mostly rolling) festival banners. On such a great spring evening, we thought that even sofas, armchairs, tables and giant "H" letters deserved a dose of fresh air. Particularly sickly furniture pieces: legless, ripped and mouldy, were going to stay outdoors even longer than us. Spoiler alert: they were not coming back. We split the rest of the items into a YES pile (this year's stuff) and a NO pile (another time stuff). The YES things needed to be kept together and placed in an easily accessible (and most dry) part of the Stables ahead of the festival. We didn't discriminate against the NO objects - they were going back inside too, and for all items, we steered away from putting them in the previously flooded sections.

Our amazing team, thanks to determination, teamwork, muscle- and brainpower (and June's clear direction), achieved the goal in about 65 minutes - and even squeezed in a team photoshoot!

Our tonight's efforts will certainly make the Hootie prep smoother! If you want to join the next task to help the festival, see us in two weeks at the same location - sign up for the session now!

Did you know that Jim Marshall, a guitar amp innovator, dubbed "the Father of Loud", worked in Hanwell? Marshall passed away in 2012, but his legacy of loud lives through a non-profit, free one-day festival: the Hanwell Hootie. On Saturday, live music was heard all across the town, from a local park, through a "busking boat", numerous pubs, a church and even a library. Loud in a library? Liberating, isn't it?

The Hanwell Community Library was the first place where six GoodGymers convened the next day after the festival to help with the teardown. Divya, who cycled to the task, beat everyone else to it. Anuj ran from the North-West and the rest of the runners from the East (think Acton junior parkrun).

One GoodGymer was coming from further East than that! John, a guest from Camden, ran from his area to us and, when reaching the library, he totalled nearly 20 km, thanks to a spontaneous decision to do an extra community mission in Ealing! Both John and Steph are training for next week's Hackney Half, so getting to the tasks on foot is a nice motivation booster for them.

Having quickly taken down the hessian that Sevan and Kash had put over the books on Friday, the group walked to Sandy Park where the task owner, June, awaited with a multitude of activities:

• Taking down four tents
• Cutting cable ties using various tools
• Loading vans with boxes and folded gazebos
• Riding at the back of the van
• Organising the reusable Hootie-themed pint cups into boxes
• Pondering whether the soggy, beer-scented cardboard is recyclable
• Playing a game with the cups that Steph can explain better

The Hootie team supplied us with water and fruit to keep our energy levels up to a good standard in the direct sun and after all the running. June thanked us for our contribution to the Hootie and invited us to a post-Hootie catch-up for volunteers later. The GoodGymers headed towards the Clocktower in Hanwell for some coffee and food, after which some of us were ready for either more tasks, running, cycling or an afternoon nap.

That's where the GoodGym at Hootie 2024 story ends. Hanwell will remain a quiet town until next year. But who knows!

Kash and Sevan ran to Hanwell Community Library, one of the locations for this year's Hanwell Hootie, to help set the scene. They didn't know how to turn a library into a concert venue. All they'd been told was that it involved hessian.

When they arrived, they found the crew and volunteers already hard at work. The stage was being set up and the bookshelves were being covered in lengths of hessian to stop beery hands from reaching for the latest Richard Osman.

There wasn't too much left to do. They helped cover 2 long stretches of shelves with hessian by using some giant clips, then covered a library computer with a "Live Life Oud" sign, pointing out that someone had dropped an L. Surely in a library, that must be some sort of crime.

The St.Mellitus church turned into a concert when I was reaching the entrance. Milly sneaked me in via the backdoor. I joined Steph who after running 50k this morning, decided to do 3 GoodGym tasks back to back. That's some hardcore dedication.

Steph was running the Tuck shop with Mary, a William Hobbayne member. Mary was taking the payments, and Steph was serving them the drinks and snacks.

I joined Steph and we were regularly snacking the leftover snacks( Crackers and blue cheese) while serving the drinks/snacks to the younglings/parents who filled the church hall.

Milly on the other hand was serving drinks to the VIP's who were performing tonight. And the band members were ripping the drums and guitar out.

Drinks were the best seller of the day, we ran out of water and soft drinks by the time we closed the tuck shop. Only 8 cans of Diet Coke were left.

And there was a huge queue outside the toilets which happens to be the case throughout the night.

Once we ran out of bottled water, we were serving tap water for some time. Milly and I were running back and forth between the sink and the counter.

It’s rock and roll time and the goodgymers went to support the Hanwell Hootie Music Festival and the Basement Door Youth Charity at the final of the West London Battle of the Bands on 23rd March. Winners will perform at the Hootie on the 11th May.

Emily looking after the VIP section/bar/bands and coordinating in the background with June. Steph Ducat setup the tuck shop and manned it with Mary. Steph helped out with preparing some canapés at the same time. As the battle of the bands started and went on with some mosh pit there was another battle going on at the tuck shop. Who would win the battle and be the best seller? The water bottles, pop drinks , crisps or the chocolate bars. Dr Pepper, diet coke, Fanta or sprite? As teenagers of course it was Dr Pepper who took the lead.

Three goodgymmers helped the hootie set up for the battle of the bands event

We moved chairs

We emptied cars

We set up the tuck shop

We set up the VIP area

Good luck to all the bands!