RAMMY rocks – and that's official!

Families raised £1,750 for charity at the first ever Rammyrocks Festival which saw people get together to paint, find and hide rocks.

The event took place on Saturday, March 31 at Nuttall Park and organisers believe that around 200 children joined in.

Sigrid Van Den Brand, organiser of the event, said: “Helen Idle, Gemma Lievesley and myself organised the event, but we could only pull it off with the help of all our wonderful friends and volunteers.

“We hoped it would go well, but it was a wonderful turn out. We got very lucky with the weather, because even though it was cold, it didn't rain.

“We have had lots of wonderful feedback and some people have been asking when the second event will take place.”

The £1750 raised at the event will go to a number of different charities.

£750 will go to Bury Hospice, £600 will go to the Friends of Nuttall Park to spend on facilities and £400 will be donated to Tyler Longden, a seven year old boy from Bury who has cancer.

Participants at the festival could get involved by following clues to rocks and painting their own.

They could also buy tickets for the tombola to win rocks painted by volunteers and buy cakes from Nuttall Park Ranger Base.

The rocks craze was established around six months ago when festival organisers, Sigrid and Helen, wanted to introduce their children to a healthy new hobby.

The idea was to get children to paint and varnish stones then hide them for others to discover.

The pair then created a Facebook page so they could share the activity with others which has since gained over 10,000 likes.

The activity encourages children to move away from their phone and tablet screen by doing craft and going outside.

Participants can share their rocks on the page to challenge others to find them.

More information on Rammy Rocks can be found on the group’s Facebook page.