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Community Fundraising Campaign to Save Green Festival

ByEmily

Jan 3, 2017

The Newcastle Community Green Festival has launched what could be a make or break campaign to save the festival in 2017 and secure its future.

Organisers have cut back on the usual 2-day event in early June and are proposing to run a single day event to bring back the festival in 2017. With costs increasing each year and less funding coming in from grants the festival team are putting their hopes in a community fundraising campaign to raise £8,000 by 15th Feb 2017.

Donors to the Green Festival’s Indiegogo site can claim a number of different perks offered by local individuals and organisations keen to see the festival take place this year. These include; limited edition t-shirts and hoodies, French language tuition, yoga classes and percussion workshops, among others!

Festival organiser Lourdes Ramirez said, “The Green Festival is a great event for local communities to come together and engage in activities that support local people and communities to take action on social and environmental issues.”

The Green Festival is also supported by some fantastic established and emerging local bands that perform for free and help to generate a first class event that can be enjoyed by the whole family and community.

Gerard New, another of the Festival’s organising team of volunteers said. “We’re hoping to offer a great little event this year for kids too. Our Kids Area will hopefully involve a number of organisations with a track record of delivering fun educational and environmental activities with children and young people in Newcastle. All we need now is support from local people and organisations to make it happen!”

In an attempt to galvanise public support behind the festival, organisers are asking supporters to come along and help out at a communal campaigning event, 4-6pm on Saturday 21 st at Bar Loco in Newcastle. If you’re good at social media, got some great ideas, or simply want to help out, there’s a role for everyone to play in saving the festival!

The Festival’s Indiegogo campaign page https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/newcastle-community-green-festival-2017-music-environment/ went live in December and will close on Feb 15. It is a ‘fixed goal’ campaign meaning it must hit the £8000 target in order to receive any of the funds raised. If the campaign fails all funds will be refunded and it is unlikely the festival will go ahead in 2017. After being unable to secure adequate funding for the last two years, the future of the Green Festival hinges on this campaign's success.

By Emily