22 festivals come together to offer you the ultimate free prize draw

BoomTown Fair 2016

Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th August 2016
Matterley Estate, near Winchester, Hampshire, SO21 1HW, England MAP
from £170 for the weekend

Daily capacity: 60,000

Last updated: Fri 22nd Jul 2016

eFestivals can exclusively reveal that 22 of the UK’s independent festivals have all come together with the aim of raising urgent funds and awareness for refugees in Northern France.

The festivals, which include Beatherder, Beautiful Days, Bestival, Boomtown, Camp Bestival, Dimensions, Eden, Forgotten Fields, Greenman, Kendall Calling, Larmer Tree, Love International, Love Saves the Day, Noisily, Nozstock, Outlook, Secret Garden Party, Shambala, Soundwave, Sunfall, Tokyo World, and WOMAD, have all offered up a pair of festival tickets for the Ultimate Festival Prize Draw offering 21 lucky entrants the chance to win a pair of tickets to one of these festivals for a £10 minimum donation.

One of the main festivals behind the idea, BoomTown Fair said, "We held a refugee fundraising event back in November and between all involved we managed to raise over £10,000 to go directly to Aid Box Convoy. However, since then the situation has actually become worse and we are getting daily reports from our friends on the ground about how dreadful it is for the people out there. After speaking with Shambala we decided that if we extended our reach and gathered in as many of our fellow festivals in one massive, combined effort we could raise so much more awareness and valuable funds to hopefully make a real difference.

"It’s been really positive bringing everyone together for this, we have again been totally blown away by the generosity of spirit within our community and really hope this campaign can reinvigorate people’s desire to help out our fellow humans in any way possible."

The bulk of the funds raised will go towards Aid Box Convoy: Bristol - refugees in Grand Synthe project. Where the team have been supporting Medicine Sans Frontiers and other volunteers to help keep thousands of refugees alive through the winter months in one of the worst camps in the region due to placed on them by the authorities, many are struggling to meet even the most basic needs.

Aid Box Convoy was started by a passionate group of people from Bristol, many of whom have ties to the festival industry, ABC have been on the ground delivering and co-ordinating aid to get to the people who need it the very most in the smaller camps in Northern France since Early October. ABC’s work has been instrumental in keeping many of the now 3,000 displaced refugees alive in the camps they operate in throughout the winter. Appealing to the local councils and politicians to support the camp, as well as providing a consistent presence of volunteers on the camp who respond to the refugee’s basic needs and co-ordinate vital supplies such as arctic sleeping bags, wood, building supplies, fuel for the generator and many other sources to help provide basic levels of human rights.

Imogen McIntosh of Aid Box Convoy said, "We are absolutely delighted to have this support from 22 of the UK’s leading festivals and could not have asked for a better platform to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis happening on our doorstep. It is support like this that not only will raise much needed funds but also has the potential to trigger support from a large number of the UK population."

Over the past few months people from within the festival community have been pulling together in many ways to help as much as they can; setting up charitable projects, holding fundraising events, actively engaging their vast networks and individuals going to France to help on the ground by building shelters or volunteering;a significant difference has already been made but the hope is that collectively, so much more can be achieved.

This situation is urgent and the hope is that the wider festival community will show their support to the organisers and the volunteers out on the ground by donating £10 to the cause, where the chance to win a pair of tickets to one of the festivals involved in the biggest ever combined festival fundraiser ever held.

The fundraiser runs from today, Wednesday 27th January until Tuesday 1st March when entrants will be picked at random and emailed directly. All winners will also be announced on the event’s facebook page here. It is one pair of tickets to one randomly selected festival per winner.

To enter and do your bit to really aid a good cause:

CLICK HERE >

discuss this news on the Festival Forums