The Oxjam charity music festival is coming to Chester in October, with a range of local acts performing to help raise money for Oxfam’s fight against poverty. Oxjam events take place all over the country, run and organised by volunteers who know and love their local music scene. Since the first Oxjam in 2006, more than 55,000 musicians have played to over 1.35 million people at around 5,100 Oxjam events nationwide. Oxjam has raised more than £2.5 million in total for Oxfam: enough money to buy 100,000 goats or provide safe water for 1,500 schools.
Last years event was a big success, with over 70 artists performing . David Weir, one of the team of dedicated volunteers told me how he got involved: “After studying at the University of Chester and graduating in Popular Music Performance I stumbled across the fantastic opportunity to work with Oxjam online one evening. After a series of meetings, myself and a team of close friends were off to conferences to learn about Oxfam’s incredible impact worldwide and discovering how we can fundraise whilst supporting and celebrating our local music scene. ” A range of events have already taken place this year : in June students from the university’s Popular Music Performance course launching the fundraising at Alexanders. The “24 Hour Big Busk” took place at various sites around the city centre on the 31 July/1 Aug. A core team of six performing twenty four hours of non stop music and raised over £1000. Finally the bandstand takeover over the weekend of 8/9th August with ten artists entertaining visitors to the riverside. “So far we’ve raised over £1500 for Oxfam and as the Oxjam Chester Takeover Festival approaches we hope to double that figure!” says David.
Coming up in October:
The Chester blog 