When VODA, the local organisation supporting voluntary and community groups, asked Fiesta Whitley Bay to provide a photograph of one of our trustees, along with a few words about what being involved in organising the event meant to them, it prompted an interesting conversation. Our immediate reaction was that choosing just one person didn’t really tell the story.

Yes, Fiesta has a team of trustees who bring different skills, experience, ideas and enthusiasm to the table. Each has their own role and responsibilities, and there are undoubtedly people who spend more time behind the scenes than others. But no one person is more important than another. We work as a team, and what we achieve is a collective effort.

More importantly, Fiesta is not simply about the people who organise it. Its very identity is built around a much bigger idea: that a community thrives when everyone has the opportunity to play a part.

The trustees would be nothing without the people who make Fiesta what it is. The volunteers who give their time, the performers who share their talents, the stallholders who bring their creativity and enterprise, the organisations who get involved, the local businesses who support us, and the thousands of people who come along, participate, have a go, lend a hand or simply enjoy being there. So, rather than choose one trustee, we decided to bring everyone together.

We took individual photographs and combined them to create this rather striking composite image. Different faces, different expressions, different perspectives, different colours and different fragments of the same bigger picture. And perhaps that’s where the story behind this picture begins.

Like any piece of art, the image invites interpretation. Some might see a jigsaw, others a patchwork, a collection of individual identities or a slightly eccentric attempt at a group photograph! We quite like the fact that it isn’t immediately obvious what you’re looking at. We hope it makes people stop, look again and start a conversation.

What does it say about belonging? About individuality? About what happens when we bring our differences together? Does it represent the people who organise Fiesta, or the people who make it happen? Perhaps it represents both. There is no single right answer. That’s the point.

We want Fiesta to be something that people feel belongs to them. Not an event that happens to a community, or something organised for a community by a small group of people, but something that grows out of the community itself. Something that reflects who we are, what we value and what we can achieve when we come together.

We want people to feel that they don’t need a particular skill, a special qualification or an official invitation to be involved. You might have an idea, a talent, an hour to spare, a story to tell, something to make, something to share or simply the enthusiasm to encourage someone else to have a go. Every contribution matters. Every person adds something. And every new face brings another possibility.

Perhaps this image is also a reminder that communities aren’t made by committees, however enthusiastic they might be. They are made by people who care enough to participate, to connect, to share and to make things happen.

So, whether you’ve been involved in Fiesta for years, have visited once, or have never quite made it along, we’d love you to see yourself somewhere in this picture. This is your Fiesta. Our Fiesta. Everybody’s Fiesta.