If you live in the Ealing Borough, you might have heard about one day in May when the whole town of Hanwell turns into a massive gig space with pubs, community hubs and green spaces hosting performances of young talent and more established artists. Yes, I’m talking about the Hanwell Hootie, the largest free one-day festival in London, celebrating Hanwell’s legendary link to Jim Marshall, the inventor of the amplifier. GoodGym Ealing is proud to support this fully volunteer-led event year after year.

This Tuesday night, Conor, Sevan and Kash ran 3.7 km to the Stables in Brent Lodge Park in Hanwell for the first Hootie task of 2026. Maria cycled to the session from Chiswick, and Harvey walked to meet the group at the task location. June and Andrea, the volunteers and planners behind the Hootie, were already there, waiting to share with GoodGymers their discovery.

The lack of electricity to light up the indoor of the Stables wasn’t a surprise, but a large pile of tyres stacked inside was! The unexpected stack was obstructing the way to pull out and clean the festival furniture, so the whole team had to think fast on their feet and redirect their energy to removing the obstacle: carrying, rolling, or flipping the tyres to the backyard.

With less time left to deal with the festival sofas and chairs in need of tidying, June and Andrea decided that the best use of the time would be unrolling and cleaning the Hootie banners - some of them really huge! When Maria and Conor unfolded the largest of the banners, it turned out that what was printed on it had no relevance to this year’s Hootie: Marshall’s diamond jubilee. The team uncovered a few more out-of-date posters, which June classified as legacy and recommended putting aside. A big win was discovering the Hootie on the Meadow banner as the 2026 festival was making a comeback to that large outdoor venue after a couple of year’s absence.

After an hour at the Stables, two tasks had been completed, and the runners were ready to set off for the run back to Ealing Broadway, just as the night settled over Ealing. Luckily, we’ve booked a follow-up session with Andrea in advance, so next week we’ll come back to Hanwell to deal with the dusty Hootie furniture. Sign up now!