Midsomer Norton Community Trust, based in Midsomer Norton Town Hall, are back in action and welcoming the community with open arms after being forced to stop running throughout the pandemic.

Started in 2013, the Trust quickly grew into a community engine room for the town, bringing people from all walks of life together with the various events, voluntary groups and activities held at the hall.

It has always been a place of togetherness and one that is used as a support bubble for the people of Midsomer Norton.

Like anyone else in the past year, the Community Trust has been heavily

affected by the pandemic, but as we begin to see an end in sight, we can look forward to the town thriving again.

Alex Davis, Manager of the Midsomer Norton Community Trust told The Journal: “The past year has been very frustrating for us, like many other charities and businesses. However, as September approaches, we now have both the Town Hall and Orchard Hall back open and community groups have returned at levels similar to pre-March 2020.

“We have the Paradis Trio events and First Thursday Social events returning. We also have had lots of questions about the Community Cinema, which was really thriving just before the last lockdown. The current plan for that is for it to return in October so we hope to announce the film line-up in the next few weeks.”

The Trust are now looking to broaden their events to cater for the larger community as people start to ease back into society and day-to-day life. If anything, the pandemic has made people realise the importance of supporting locally, whether that be shops, charities or events. The Paradis Trio event, held at Midsomer Norton Town Hall, is one of the Trust’s first events back.

Alex continues: “We have only just started with the Trio last month, but we had a really good response to that and I think in general the community are really excited about coming back out and enjoying entertainment together again.

“It was great to see so many familiar faces at the event and credit should go to the volunteers who slipped back into their roles like they had never been away.

“We’re initially bringing back the events that were familiar to people but there are ideas for new events and activities - the Cultural programme as part of the Heritage Action Zone bid for example.

“Hopefully if we have a stable few months, we will see some of those in 2022 - alongside the return of some of the Major Town Events such as the Fayre and Arts Festival.”

All money from the events goes back into the Community Trust, which enables them to continue to put on events and activities throughout the year. Both the Trio and Social are free to enter this month so it is well worth going and seeing how brilliant they are for yourselves.

Alex said: “We’re always looking for volunteers - for people to help with event set up, to working behind the bar at cinema and events, to delivering posters. If people want to join in, please drop an email to: [email protected]”

For summaries of events and dates here, visit: http://www.midsomernortoncommunitytrust.co.uk/live-music/)