Allen Valley Community Arts (AVCA) Annual General Meeting (Monday 27th July) Agenda Welcome and apologies Retirement, re-election and appointment of direttors Chair s report (See below) Treasurer s report 2026 events Any other business AVCA is incredibly grateful for the dedication of our current board members: Craig Atkinson (Chair), Tim Reed (Treasurer/Company Secretary), Peter Aldcroft, Glynn Galley, Nick Pepper, Oran Villiers-stuart, Caitlin Kendall, Kate Maughan, Phillip Bell, Bryony Villiers- Stuart, and Hollie-Ann Coleman. Our heartfelt thanks also go to Kerry Crellin and Sue Reed for their invaluable contributions to the group's success. As noted in agenda item 2, the director terms for Tim, Oran, Kate, Bryony, and Phillip have ofFicially come to an end. Looking forward, we are pleased to share that Kerry has expressed a wish to step into a director role and join the board. AVCA Chair's Report July 2026 It has been another incredible 12 months of music, spoken word, dance and community for Allen Valleys Community Artsl Since our last AGM, we ve kept busy hosting a brilliant lineup of events for the valleys. Our year-round schedule included a fantsstic gig with Frankie Archer in October, a lovely Christmas concert with Jon Doran & Janice Burns, together with the Dale Singers, and our traditional New Years Eve Party with Hedgehog s Skin. This past June, we also danced the night away at a ceilidh with Banter and enjoyed an intimate concert from James Delar and Saul Rose. Of course, the major highlight of our year was the 2025 Allen Valleys Folk Festival. From Friday's opening notes with Jordan Aikin & Quercus and Rachael Mcshane and the Cartographers, right through to Cosmo Sheldrake's magic on Sunday afternoon, the music was truly world-class. Local venues like the village hall, St Cuthbert's Church, the Forge Café and Studios, the Lion House, and the King's Head were buzzing with energy throughout the festival w￿kend. We were proud to keep many of our festival events completely free, ensuring everyone in our community could take part. Saturday afternoon saw dancing from Hadrian Clog, the Hexham Lasses and Step This Way and the Bones Creek Band. Meanwhile, our workshops We￿ packed with people trying their hand at everything from lino printing and needle felting to Northumbrian pipes and singing folk songs very loudly! High attendance and positive reviews marked the success of our guided walks. Similarly, our spoken-word events successfully united artistic creativity with meaningful social connection. As night fell on Saturday, the spectacular Allendale Wolf proce55ion and bonfire lit up the villag continuing its run as one of our absolute favourite traditions. The momentum hasn't stoppedl Planning for the 2026 festival is flying ahead, and thanks to your incredible support, all weekend passes and Saturday night'dance night, tickets have already sold out. We are also busy preparing for the festive season, with a December Christmas concert featuring the Dale Singers with Bryony Griffiths and Alice Jones, alongside the welcome return of Hedgehog's Skin on New Year's Eve. Craig Atkinson AVCA - Chairperson A Massive Thank You from Allen Valleys Community Arts It tskes an incredible community of hardworking, talented, and passionate people to keep our festival alive. To everyone who helped make our 2025 festival weekend, seasonal events, and one-off gigs a success-we quite literally couldn't do it without you. Our Brilliant Volunteers and Board Members A heartfelt thank you to our board and our amazing community of volunteer stewards. As the public face of the festivali you welcomed visitors, kept everyone safe, and ensured an unforgettable experience. Special thanks also to our creative team of venue decorators- everything looked absolutely beautifull Our Venues and Hospitality Heroes Our deepest thanks to Chris, John, and the volunteers at the village hall for running the superb café and bar, and for their tireless work before, during, and after the weekend. Extended thanks to Gary, the village hall caretsker, for all his essential help behind the scenes. Thank you to Shirley, Chris, and Martin at St. Cuthberts Church for hosting the David Crellin Stage and our workshops. Thanks to Sam and Jane at Higher Ground or the use of the Medway Building and for growing the wonderful vegetables used in our festival catering. Thank you to everyone at the Forge Cafe and Studios for hosting Saturday's music and open mic sessions, and to Kev Moore for pulling it all together so seamlessly. Thanks to Anne at the Northumberland Library Service and Rev Michael Holland for letting us use the library and the methodist Chapel for workshop venues. Cheers to Phil and the team at the King s Head and Maureen and the team at the Lion House for hosting our Friday night gig, ad-hoc sessions, and our fantastic Sunday evening after-paty. Accommodation and Logistics Thank you to Wendy for letting our campers use Baynes Field, and to the Burnlaw Community and everyone at the Allendale Wolf/Bunkhouse for helping us accommodate our visiting artists. Production, Tech and the Allendale Wolf Bonfire Sound & Lighting: Immense gratitude to Dave, Rob and ]￿ (sound) and Jona and Bonnie (lighting) for always going the extra mile to make u5 look and sound incredible. The Wolf Bonfire: Thank you to Bill, Ashley, and Jonah for another unforgettable bonfire spectacular. Thanks also to John and the Tar Bar'ls Association for the loan of their barriers, Damon and MKM (Hexham) for providing the sand base, and Molly and Bryony Agar for bringing the wonderfvl wolf puppet. Design, Print and Promotion Our visual identity looked stunning this year. Thank you to: Peter McGlynn (Flyers, merchandise, print, and social media designs) Natslie Reid (Festival map design) Louise Hick (Our signature festival 'wolf' design) Chris Walton (Banner designs) Robson Print (For all your printing support) Natalie at the Hexham Courant (For the wonderful press coverage) Sponsors, Grants and Supporters Our deepest gratitude to our financial backers and local business champions who make the festival viable: Ed and Mel George and all at Treehorn Offshore (Sponsors of our workshop and guided walk programme) The Allendale Co-op, especially Kirstin and Neville (For printing, advertising, ticket sales, and ongoing support) Our 2025 financial grant donors: The North Pennine National Landscape Land of Lead and Silver projett, the Helen Allinson Trust, the Catherine Cookson Trust, Scops Art Trust, and the Joicey Trust. The Parish Council, Fentimans and Allendale Brew Co. for their local support. And Finally... A huge, final thank you to all the incredible artists, dancers, performers and those that led our guided walks and workshops and who brought our 2025 festival to life. You made the weekend truly magical. THANK YOU, EVERYONEI I'd like to present the accounts for the year ending 31° M8rch 2026 The activity for the year comprised of the Festival in Sept 25, NYE Dec 25. Other gigs- Nicklsyd (Apr 251. Frankie Archer (Oct 251, J8nice and Jon (Nov 251 and Christm8s Concert. Ticket sales were higher than in the previous year. Total £24K rather than £21.5 Festival sales were LJP by about £3K to £18K. We only sold weekend passes and not session tickets, and we did away with earlybird tickets. NYE £4KI Other gigs £2K We like to thank our sponsors. Treehorn Offshore sponsored us again and increased their help by giving £1200 in total . The Lion House, the Forge, Stonedale, and Andrew Coulson all contributed too. Special thanks must go to Jona Aal who donated time worth £1440 running the lighting equipment and preparing our new lights . Concession income came from Fire&Dough. Fentim8ns and Allendale Brew Co We did especially well attracting grants this year Local funders contributed £1 K each these being Helen Allinson, Catherine Cookson 2nd The Joicey Trust. DCC £1500 as a continuation of the Lead and Silver project and a fabulous grant from Scops Arts Trust of £5,000 Merchandise was popular and made a small profit. This year we expanded the range to include aprons. Overall income increased by about £8K to top £40K for the year As to Direct costs.. We spent more this year on booking artists, with £16K spent at the festival against £13 in the previous year. We paid for Mike Duckett to do some fabulous line drawings and work with the local school to produce some'zines. For sound and lighting we used our usual crew, Jona A81, Rob Griffiths and Dave Ainsley with equipment hired from Si jameson and other suppliers Catering the Village hall provided a supper at NYE We greatly expanded ourworkshop programme thanks toTreehorn and paid for spoken word speakers as well as musical and walking workshops. We had to spend a lot more this year on accommodation and artist travel. This will probably be a recuriing feature. The increase in income was matched by an increase in direct costs leaving a gross contribution about £2K higher than t8St year at £8,683 As a result of increased income we were able to purchase some more stage lights and make a ontribution to the new stage at the village hall. Both of these items are of benefit to the wider community of course. We had a separate e8tegory for décor this year and also paid for a professional photographer to be present. Finally we come to venue hire. As ever. us m2ny venues around the vill2ge using the Parish Church and hall, the Methodist church, the Medway building and of course the marvellous village hall. Special thanks go to the village hall for providing such a great space both inside and out staffed by brilliant volunteers. The surplus for the year was £2625. Breaking this down: The festival together with merchandise made a surplus of £730, other gigs brought in £200 and NYE £1,690. The balance sheet shows that we had a healthy cash and bank balance of£26.075. We had our sale of tickets for the September 2026 festival in March and so are included in the balance sheet for the financial year (but not the profit and loss account). This boosted the bank balance by £13,705. We also received the Helen Allinson grant for the 26 festival before the year end and had paid out some festival expenses, such as insurance, in advance. All of these items will feature in the accounts for the year we are in now lending March 20271 Accumulated reserves stood at just under £12,000 at the year end which gives us 8 Stable base foi p18nning the current year's events. Our thanks go to Chris Welch who. once again has kindly performed an independent examination of these accounts and verified them to be correct. # **Allen Valleys Community Arts Financial Statements For The Year Ending** **31st March 2026** ## Allen Valleys Community Arts Profit and Loss Account ## For the Year Ending 31st March 2026 |Income
Ticket Sales
Sponsorship
Concessions (Coffee/Pizza)
Grants and Donations
Merchandise Sold
Raffle
Camping Income
Total Income
Direct Costs
Artist Fees
Artistic Commisions
Sound & Light
Catering
Workshop Costs
Merchandise
Volunteer/Artist Expenses
PRS
Gross Contribution
Expenses
Administration
Insurance Expense
Décor
Equipment
Printing
Publicity
Venue Hire
**Surplus for the year**|£
£
_£_
_£_
24,080
_21,494_
3,440
_1,550_
590
_566_
9,831
_6,518_
2,229
_1,451_
0
_470_
2
_80_
40,172
_32,128_
17,948
_15,930_
600
_1,340_
4,372
_3,545_
1,200
_1,200_
1,383
_536_
2,131
_1,143_
3,099
_1,003_
756
_769_
31,489
_25,465_
8,683
_6,663_
855
_830_
442
_517_
340
_0_
2,345
_150_
181
_902_
600
_0_
1,295
_1,231_
6,058
_3,630_
2,625
_3,033_
_Previous Year_| |---|---| ||| ## Allen Valleys Community Arts Balance Sheet ## As At 31st March 2026 ||||_Previous_|_Year_| |---|---|---|---|---| ||£|£|_£_|_£_| |Current Assets||||| |Cash At Bank and Petty Cash|26,075||_20,990_|| |Stock of Merchandise|0||_1,000_|| |||26,075||_21,990_| |Current Liabilities||||| |Accounts Payable|0||_400_|| |Receipts in Advance and Accruals|14,078||_12,218_|| |||14,078||_12,618_| |Net Current Assets||11,997||_9,372_| |Surplus for Year|2,625||_3,033_|| |Surplus B/Fwd|9,372||_6,339_|| |Capital and Reserves||11,997||_9,372_| ## **Independent Report to the Trustees of Allen Valleys Community Arts - CIO No 1173463 on the Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2026** ## **Respective Responsibilities of the Trustees and Independent Examiner** consider that an audit is not required for this period under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 ( the Charities ) and that an independent examination is needed. It is my responsibility - to examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act; - to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the - Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and; - to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. ## **Basis of** My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently view. ## **Independent Examiner's Statement** In connection with my examination, no matters have come to my attention which gives me cause to believe that in any material respect: - the accounting records were not kept in accordance with s.130 of the Charities Act; or - the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or - the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning form - and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) - ter considered as part of an independent examination. I have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. C M Welch FCA, Shilburn Road, Allendale 30 June 2026