Church Honours Pastor Robert Guanco After Festival Death

Jesus Living Water Church in Eastbourne has honoured Pastor Robert Guanco, 41, who died when a large wooden sign fell at the Big Church Festival on 28 August 2026 — and a fundraiser for his wife and daughter has now passed £198,500, Evangelical Focus reported on 4 November.

The tribute, and the fundraising milestone, are the reason the story is being told again this week. Guanco's death was not a new event: it happened more than two months ago, on a summer afternoon in West Sussex, when a sign fell and killed a pastor who had come to a festival to worship. What is new is how his church has chosen to remember him, and how generously strangers have responded.

Guanco was, his church said, "a faithful servant of God, a loving husband to Isaeli, a devoted and caring father to Ellie, and a blessing to so many people whose lives he touched." The church is holding an open service to remember his ministry, and the GoFundMe for Isaeli and Ellie is expected to reach £220,000.

What Happened at Wiston Park

The Big Church Festival is the UK's largest Christian music festival, drawing more than 40,000 people each August to Wiston Park, near Steyning in West Sussex. On 28 August, the first day of the three-day event, a large wooden sign fell. Guanco, pastor of Jesus Living Water Church in Eastbourne, was killed. Six other people were injured, and four were taken to hospital.

The remainder of the festival was cancelled. Artists booked for the weekend included Lauren Daigle, Lecrae, CeCe Winans, and for KING & COUNTRY, and CeCe Winans offered prayers for those affected. Tens of thousands of festival-goers went home early, and a weekend built for worship and music became a weekend of shock and grief.

Sussex Police, the Health and Safety Executive, and the local authority are investigating the incident, and police have issued an appeal under Operation Igloo. No findings have been reported yet, and the investigation continues.

A Fundraiser That Kept Growing

The GoFundMe for Guanco's wife, Isaeli, and their daughter, Ellie, passed £138,000 from more than 4,400 donations by 31 August, just three days after the accident. By 4 November, Evangelical Focus reported, it had raised more than £198,500, and it is expected to reach £220,000.

Those numbers tell their own story. More than 4,400 people gave within days of a tragedy most of them had only read about — and they kept giving for two months. A pastor from a church in Eastbourne, a town most donors had never visited, became the reason thousands of strangers opened their wallets.

The money will not bring Guanco back, and nobody involved pretends it will. But for a widow and a young daughter facing life without a husband and father, it is a measure of how widely one man's ministry reached. The fundraiser's growth is the clearest sign that Guanco's death was felt far beyond his own congregation.

Words From the Archbishop

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dame Sarah Mullally, was among those who spoke after the tragedy. "Sad and shocked," she said, adding: "I pray for his family, friends and loved ones as they grieve."

“I pray for his family, friends and loved ones as they grieve,” the Archbishop said.

Her words carried weight because the festival sits at the heart of British Christian life. The Big Church Festival is not a fringe gathering: it is the biggest Christian music event in the country, and its cancellation was felt across denominations. When the Archbishop speaks of grief, she speaks for a church that lost one of its own in a place built for joy.

Other stories of faith carried through sudden loss have been told here in recent days. A Georgia pastor's family grieved a daughter after twelve weeks in hospice care, as told in Pastor Mike Stone Daughter Sarah Dies at 19 After 12 Weeks in Hospice Care. A new era began for the Church of England under Archbishop Sarah Mullally, as covered in King to Inaugurate 12th General Synod as Archbishop Sarah Mullally Begins New Era. And music met faith in an unexpected Vatican encounter, as reported in Today: Pope Leo XIV Meets Bob Dylan at the Vatican and Gives Him a Rosary.

An Open Service, and a Question That Remains

Guanco's church is holding an open service to remember his ministry — open, not closed, because the grief was never private. A man who died at a festival of 40,000 people belonged, in some way, to all of them, and the service gives them a place to say so.

The investigation into the fallen sign continues, and the festival's future is not yet clear. What is clear is that a church in Eastbourne lost its pastor on a summer afternoon, and that thousands of people who never met him decided his wife and daughter should not face the years ahead alone.

The £198,500 raised so far, on its way to £220,000, is a number. The service in Eastbourne is a gathering. Neither is an ending. The question that remains — how a community honours a man taken in a moment, and how long that honour lasts — is one his church will be answering for years, one Sunday at a time.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.