GENEROUS families turned up in droves to enjoy a healthy dose of sun and soul at a charity event.

Summer Soul took over Barrow park last weekend in the hopes of raising cash and provisions for the busy Barrow Foodbank.

More than £500 was collected for the charity, made up of £432 raised from collection buckets on the day, plus a hefty 20 per cent of that matched by the supermarket Tesco.

A total of 415 meals were also collected on Sunday, for needy families using the service.

Brian George, of Abbey Road, organised the Summer Soul event and was thrilled with the response.

More like this: Dalton school community proud to offer support to foodbank

He said: "It went really well and I was really pleased with it.

"The people of Barrow are very generous and they demonstrated that by the amount they gave us on the day.

"The weather turned out nice for us which was a god send and we had a great result at the end of the day."

Sunday's get-together offered visitors the chance to listen to northern soul, Motown and modern soul all played on vinyl by Barrow soul djs as well as raffles and tombolas.

The 61-year-old has organised many similar events in previous years, all of which were geared at helping charities operating at a local level.

Previous events organised by Mr George have helped causes such as the British Heart Foundation and Diabetes UK, and the Barrow resident and soul music fan has vowed to make it an annual fixture in the area's calendar.

He said: "It was definitely very worthwhile.

"We always do it for a local charity but there had been a lot of publicity that said the food bank was struggling so I decided to help them out.

"The DJs were fantastic and they did it for free; the park wardens were very good too and everything just went so well.

"Loads of people came and brought picnics, set up gazebos and just had a great time."

Mr George, who works as a manager in construction has already presented the cash and meals to the food bank and is already considering next year's fundraiser.

He added: "I will definitely make it an annual event, always in June and always in Barrow park and always for a local charity."

More like this: Donations pour in to help foodbank meet soaring demand