Access All AreasBoomTown Fair has announced it raised £98,654 for various charities across the globe.
Local engagement and education all contributed to the high funding number, along with £2 ticket donations, guest list donations, stewarding partnerships, on-site installations, salvage operations and a platform for awareness-raising talks at the new Speakers’ Corner talks tent.
Talks at the Speakers’ Corner included a drugs awareness message from Wendy Teasdil; Maisie Williams discussing the growing refugee crisis and formal education; Jess Thom talking about living with Tourettes; and the launch of The White Ribbon Campaign’s Safe Event Guide, promoting awareness of sexual harassment and assault of women at events.
Funds raised
Local support:
· BoomTown matched guestlist donations to create £10,000, to be split between the parishes bordering the festival site for investment in projects to benefit their communities.
· £7,255 has been donated to Hampshire Air Ambulance through the ongoing stewarding partnership.
· The BoomTown KidzTown team held free family carnival workshops at the Discovery Centre for Winchester families, alongside local charities Naomi House and Blue Apple Theatre.
National and international charity support:
· £46,380 was raised for Oxfam through the stewarding partnership, with a further £15,000 raised through their district-themed Oxfam Shop.
· The multi-charity beneficiary stewarding organisation My Cause accrued £5,165 for a range of UK-based and international charities.
Refugees help:
· A group of volunteers from Twyford collected 160 sleeping bags, 85 tents, 58 roll mats, 13 self-inflating mats, 17 rugs/blankets and quantities of miscellaneous clothing, shoes and wellies, canned food, pots and pans, lamps, pumps and chairs – all of which went to L’Auberge des Migrants.
· Love Support Unite raised £2,410.
· Help Refugees raised £500 through their festival-wear stall, selling unsuitable clothes that had been donated to their warehouse in Calais.
· Refugee Community Kitchen raised £280.
· Festival Waste Reclamation and Distribution collected tents, sleeping bags, camping chairs, sleeping mats and clothes for Syria with the Portsmouth-based Don’t Hate, Donate charity.
Global:
· TEMWA Charity ran the festival’s on-site Lost and Found, for which BoomTown donated £5,000 towards the charity and a further £500 was raised through festivalgoers giving donations.
· The build crew from the South American-styled area, Barrio Loco, raised £1,640 for Alianza Arkana, a grassroots project working with indigenous communities in the Amazon in Peru, whose way of life is under threat from increasing development and industrialisation.
Environmental:
· 72,000kg of CO2 emissions were accounted for through travel carbon offsetting ticket donations of £3,600 to Energy Revolution.
· BoomTown teamed up with Love Your Tent to bring a new initiative, with the idea of giving cheap ‘dispensable’ tents more sentimental value to encourage people to take them home.
· Purple Community Fund raised £489 selling handbags, belts and jewelry made from ring pulls. They also collected 5kg of ring pulls from the festival.