A three-day music festival in Edinburgh this summer will welcome the likes of chart toppers including Sam Ryder, James Arthur and Razorlight.
The event will see some of Scotland and the UK’s top music acts take to the stage over one weekend at Stockbridge’s Raeburn Place sports ground.
The festival, which will run from Friday, July 29, to Sunday July 31, is an event which will make a difference to the community as profits are set to be invested locally into local charities and projects.
The organisers, who are Stockbridge residents, have been running the successful Stockbridge Neighbourgood Market, and wanted to build on that success with a different type of event.
Preston Mommsen, who is leading the event, said: “Our events have always given a high priority to local charities, but we saw an opportunity to do much more.
“We’re hopeful that we can raise over £300,000 from the festival profits, and that cash would go straight to meet local charities and projects. If you look at other successful community festivals like ‘Fringe by the Sea’ in North Berwick, they’ve created exactly the kind of family-friendly event we want to deliver, but we’ll have the added bonus of raising funds for the community.
“As far as we’re aware nobody has done it before on this scale.”
He added that the vision of the event was to showcase “incredible leading UK musicians” and in turn “produce a measurable and positive impact for tens of thousands of people in the community it resides in, rather than exporting all of that profit out of the area.”
The charities selected for the first year include Friends of Inverleith Park and its new playground project; the LifeCare Centre supporting their meals on wheels services; Stockbridge Primary School assisting in their afterschool programmes, DNIPRO Kids and the 51 Ukrainian refugee orphans who were brought recently into Edinburgh; and the Edinburgh NE Foodbank who are launching their new Larder initiative.
Selena Barr of Friends of Inverleith Park, said: “Having an event in Stockbridge that directly benefits the people of the area and wider Edinburgh area is fantastic.
“The refurbishment of the playground is well overdue and the funding will go a long way to ensuring children for future have somewhere safe and nice play.”
Organiser Jamie Wilson concluded: “We’ve carried out what has been the biggest consultation that’s ever taken place on an event in north Edinburgh.
“We’ve been heartened by the strength and depth of support from local residents and organisations. We’re determined to make this a successful model that could be applied to festivals elsewhere, and we’re equally determined to deliver on our pledges for improving our local community.
“Over the Bridge will be a fantastic event and we hope will have a lasting legacy for Stockbridge as well.”
Tickets are currently on sale via Ticketmaster. Each day, live music will start at 2pm, ending at 8.45pm on Friday and Saturday, and 6.45pm on Sunday.
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