Festival Victim Named as Eastbourne Pastor Robert Guanco
The man killed by a falling sign at the Big Church Festival was named by his church as Robert Guanco, 41, a pastor at Jesus the Living Water Church in Eastbourne — “a faithful servant of God, a loving husband to Isay, a devoted and caring father to Ellie”. Six others were injured. The Archbishop of Canterbury said she was “sad and shocked”; a fundraising page has been established for his family. The Health and Safety Executive’s investigation continues.
The naming turns Friday’s structural failure into a human account: a pastor at his community’s biggest annual gathering, killed by the festival’s own signage, mourned by a congregation now crowdfunding for his widow and daughter. The archbishop’s involvement reflects what the Big Church Festival is to British Christianity — its Glastonbury, drawing tens of thousands across denominations — and the grief will be correspondingly wide. The investigative question has not changed since Friday: how a temporary structure at a licensed event failed in winds that were forecast, and what was inspected, by whom, when. Those answers now carry a name and a family. Watch the HSE’s findings — and whether this weekend’s other festivals quietly re-rigged their own signage.