IN ITS opening year, Ferringo Fest has raised more than £10,000 for charity.

The festival, held on Sunday was set up by Steve Ferringo, aged 54, to raise money for two charities who helped him through an incredibly difficult period in his life.

Mr Ferringo lost his wife to cancer and beat the disease himself. He was helped by Macmillan Cancer Support and Pennine Acute Hospitals Charity.

Mr Ferringo said of his festival: “It totally exceeded my expectations.

“There were so many more people than I anticipated and at one time there were maybe 2,000 people there.

“There were people queuing up right up the street.”

He feared the worst when he woke on Sunday to a wet morning but was relieved when the sun came out.

In the end he said ‘it was a beautiful day’.

Mr Ferringo performed himself in the Steve Ferringo Band at 6.30pm.

Other bands included Novustory, Rubber Soul, Mustard and Led Into Zeppelin.

The music was split between two stages at the venue, one in Walshaw Sports Club and one in a marquee in the grounds.

Along with the 14 bands, Ferringo Fest also had a fun fair, face painting and raffles.

An auction, which included a Stone Roses snare drum and Scott Quigg’s boxing gloves is still running, with the successful bidders to be announced later in the week.

Raffle winners will also be drawn later, the draw will be filmed and posted online when the winners are contacted.

While the total is yet to be confirmed Mr Ferringo told The Bury Times the figure is in the region of £10,500.

Mr Ferringo was overwhelmed with the generosity of those who attended his festival.

He said: “When people asked at first how much did I expect to raise I didn’t have a clue.

“It’s a total stab in the dark but people were so generous on the day.

“It was a great atmosphere and just incredible, the marquee was chocker.

“All the little things just fell into place.

“We had these young security guys who just started dancing and got everyone going.

“We didn’t rig that, they just went for it.”

He said the whole festival was ‘blessed’ on the day and praised the ‘top performance’ of the bands.

Something he hopes to replicate in the future.

Mr Ferringo thanked Martin Duffy, who provided all of the sound equipment and engineers for the festival.