BLANDFORD festival Teddy Rocks has been thrown a financial lifeline after agreeing a sponsorship deal with an online marketplace.

Dorset-based OnBuy.com will sponsor Teddy Rocks Festival, which raises money for children’s cancer charity, Teddy20.

This new sponsorship deal means that OnBuy will have donated a total of £120,000 to the event since first sponsoring the festival in 2018.

Cas Paton, founder and CEO of OnBuy, said: “Knowing the impact cancer has on a family, I feel a strong affinity with the incredible work of the Teddy20 charity.

“The pandemic has had an immense impact on not-for-profit organisations and charities, meaning many are unable to continue providing the services and care they have done for so many years.

“I wanted to ensure that Teddy Rocks Festival had the funds to operate for the next couple of years to continue the great work it does with children affected by cancer for many years to come.”

Teddy Rocks Festival was created by Tom Newton in 2012 as a way of raising money for the charity Teddy20, run by his parents, Owen and Kim Newton.

Teddy20 provides emotional and financial support to children and young people suffering and undergoing treatment for cancer.

The charity was set up in memory of Tom’s brother, Ted Newton, who died at the age of 10 in 2010 from a rare form of bone cancer.

Tom said: “2020 has been incredibly hard for us. Having to postpone the festival this year was devastating but we are buoyed up and raring to go for 2021 and OnBuy’s donation has set us in good stead for it to be an epic weekend.

“Cas and the OnBuy team always go above and beyond to help the festival in any way they can. So far, that help has ranged from helping with design and sourcing event supplies, to standing in the crowd and singing along to the bands.

“Without the support of sponsors, financial or otherwise, we simply couldn’t put the festival on. The money that OnBuy has donated has helped us get to where we are now and helped us raise hundreds of thousands of pounds for Teddy20.”

Teddy Rocks Festival will take place from Friday, April 30, 2021 to Sunday, May 2, at Charisworth Farm in Blandford Forum, Dorset.

Visit teddyrocks.co.uk to book tickets and to find out more information about the event.