After a busy Christmas period, Bury Drop In were thrilled to receive a Facebook message from Matt Savage, Keyboardist from the Brighton Celtic influenced folk-rock band, the Levellers. He asked us if we would like to join them at The Apex, for the start of their UK tour, to collect donations from fans to raise the issue of homelessness in the local area. You can imagine our delight at the prospect of being on hand to collect donations and promote our work to a sold-out audience over two nights, Wednesday 12 and Thursday 13 February 2020.

It didn’t take long to arrange sufficient volunteers to man the stand. We were asked to arrive at 5.30pm on the first night to meet with some of the band members and to provide us with enough time to set up before the doors opened to the public at 7pm. Fans came through the doors armed with bags of items including toiletries, socks and underwear. Lots of photos were taken during the course of the evening and uploaded to Facebook to record the generosity of everyone’s donations. During the performance, some of our volunteers flocked into the auditorium to watch the concert. The band finished at 22.45pm with the hit song, Beautiful Day, and as fans came out they came over to chat to us and donate lose change.

We found that many of our volunteers enjoyed the first evening so much, they came back on the second night to help out again. Over the course of two nights, we collected money and large amount of items. We cannot thank the Levellers fans enough for their compassion and encouraging words.

Following on from the two night event, we received a message from Matt and the band, he said, “Just wanted to say a massive thankyou to you for being part of what we are trying to do…hopefully you got plenty of more donations and raised money for your very worthy cause…Many thanks for everything you do to help others in need. All the best. Matt, Charlie and the Levellers family xx”.