The end of summer is when forward thinking leaders turn to both building their position among the year-round local community and finding routes to expand custom beyond their traditional base.

One way to do both at once is to add your brand as sponsor for a popular local charity event that - if you’ll forgive the Heinekenspeak - reaches the parts others don’t!

Torquay’s annual Rainbow Ball is on course to bring the bay another spectacular charity evening, after raising as much as £17,750 last year for the worldwide Elton John Aids Foundation and our own Rowcroft Hospice.

In a new initiative for 2019, joining those two good causes will be a third beneficiary.

The Official Launch of the Rainbow Ball 2019 will take place at the Rowcroft Garden Party on June 29th.

Join us to find out who will be headlining this year's extravaganza...

Having sold 400 tickets by the end of July The Rainbow Ball committee are celebrating once again.

The charity event being held at The Riviera Centre on Saturday 1st December, World Aids Day, has secured sponsorship from local businesses.

With businesses constantly urged to back good causes, owners often direct their money to the oldest and the largest charities in the land. That way, they may reckon, they please as many of their customers as possible.

So when GWR unveiled its latest "trainbow" summer branding, the rail franchise took a leap beyond its sector's usual reliance on advertising ticket deals accompanied by pretty pictures of a route.

A Friday the Thirteenth Garden Party, complete with entertainment and its own raffle, will start the live build-up to the recently revived Rainbow Ball - billed as "Torquay's most outrageous night of the year".

To be held from 7-10pm on the tropically themed decked enclosure to the side of Soho, at the town's harbourside, the July 13 launch comes amid a social media campaign that has seen nearly half of the tickets for the pre-Christmas charity event already sold to eager attendees.