The Big Record Fair is back

Hi Sunshine News readers,

It’s been another busy week for us with plenty of news to share including thank yous, upcoming events and equipment updates!

We firstly wanted to say a huge thanks to our friends at Clavis who nominated us as their chosen charity for their Business Fives Charity Football Match earlier this month.

The team have raised over £300 which will support us in funding the mammoth list of equipment we have from our February equipment round.

It’s great to see community and work-based fundraising happening again across the North East, please get in touch with us if you are planning a fundraising event and would like to support us.

Disclaimer, we will attend all bake sales in person for obvious reasons!

Speaking of our February equipment round, our panel met last week and have approved over £60,000 worth of applications.

After a £70,000 round in November, we can’t say we were surprised at the demand for our first round of 2022, but we are certainly taken aback at the 94% (yes 94%) increase in families applying to us compared to this time last year.

Much of this can be put down to increased demand for limited services, cuts in benefits, soaring living costs and barriers to work meaning our families are at a disadvantage now more than ever.

We’re going to be sharing more information in in the coming weeks about an urgent equipment appeal, to enable us to support the children from our February round who are desperately waiting for life-changing equipment.

We have another exciting partnership to announce this week, and it’s a blast from the past if any Chronicle readers have supported us since the 1990s.

Many moons ago, long before digital downloads, The Chronicle Sunshine Fund were the charity beneficiaries of The Big Newcastle Record Fair, through a series of events hosted at Northumbria Uni by Century Decayed records which raised £20,000 over the years.

We are delighted that Century Decayed owner, Adrian Farquhar, has decided to resurrect The Big Newcastle Record Fair and do another series of shows in support of the charity.

The event is set to attract hundreds of North East music lovers of all ages, with local record dealers in attendance, selling a host of memorabilia including some rare items.

Adrian had no doubt of which charity he wanted to support this time round and said: "The reasons we chose the Sunshine Fund as a beneficiary of our Newcastle events remain the same as when we chose them back in the 90s, being a regional charity that help local disabled children and make a real difference to their lives.

"I could not honestly think of a more worthwhile charity to help and support.

"The previous series of the Big Newcastle Fair raised in excess of five figures for the Sunshine Fund.

"With everyone's help, dealers and customers alike, we would like to emulate this or even surpass it. So we'd like everyone to show us their support as they did last time to make this special."

The record fair will take place on Saturday, April 23 at the University of Northumbria from 10am- 3pm.

Follow @centurydecayedrecordfairs on Facebook for more information.

Next week we will be launching our 2022 Ball theme with our partners St James’ Square Law Firm, as we host our official ball launch at The Grand Hotel in Gosforth Park.

We’ve dropped a few hints on social media as to what the theme might be but it is definitely one for the Dancing Queens where we hope to raise lots of Money, Money, Money!

You can now buy tickets to both our Ball and annual Question of Sport event by contacting Erin.

Have a great weekend,

Lauren x