Talented Emma sings her way to success in village festival

The Aldingbourne Trust client wowed the judges at its first festival.

Her solo version of Abba's famous Dancing Queen melted the hearts of the Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Piers Morgan stand-ins who judged the acts.

Emma's win sees her gain a slot at the trust's grand charity auction on November 14 at the Riverside Caravan Centre in Bognor Regis.

But the other acts in the talent show also provided plenty for the judging panel to think about.

Joint second was another of the trust's clients, Jeremy Thomas, who was King Elvis for the day, along with the Wood End Cheer Leaders.

Other acts included the Acorn Pussycats, the Passion, Belly Dancing, Disco Class, From Milton Lodge to Amarillo and Just Me who was a client called Stuart Bath playing solo keyboard.

The talent show was just one aspect of last Saturday's event at the Aldingbourne Country Centre which the trust has described as a total success for its work with people with learning difficulties.

The stalls alone raised more than 1,182 to add to 900-plus from the caf.

Trust enterprise and development manager Michelle McKinley Bell said: "We will definitely be holding another festival because this one went so well.

"We were busy all day. There was a consistent stream of people coming in throughout the time we were open.

"Everyone put in a lot of hard work, for which we are grateful, and that paid off because the event was such a success.

"Everybody enjoyed themselves."

Other aspects of the day were a guess the name of the bear competition in which Barbara Lampard correctly chose Marmalade and a balancing the beanie babies challenge, won by Josh Phillips with 40 on one hand.

What do you think? Send a letter to [email protected] or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click here to add yourself to our readers' map.