VIDEO: CROxjam festival raises thousands for charity (From Croydon Guardian)

VIDEO: Croydon's Oxjam music festival raises thousands for charity

5:00am Thursday 25th October 2012 in News By Andrew Bloss

Music junkies flocked to the town centre last weekend as they revelled in the borough’s maiden CROxjam music festival.

The three day event saw over 100 live performances take place in ten venues, with more than 1,000 fans attending the gigs come rain or shine. Nearly £5,000 was raised for Oxfam.

It was part of the nationwide Oxjam events, with 40 other similar festivals being held throughout October.

The festival was run by volunteers and bands waived their performance fees, meaning all the money raised went to charity.

Veolia, the council’s street cleaning and refuse contractor, also did their bit for the festival. Staff manned the doors and checked wrist bands, with some festival goers a little bemused to see their bin-man on the door.

BRIT school students showed their skills were more than just about performing on stage, with many of them helping out with the technical side of the festival, including sound engineering and photography.

Croydon College’s music studio manager John Treherne also offered his services, making sure bands at The Oval Tavern sounded as good as possible.

Festival organiser John Bownas said it was a phenomenal achievement that the event went down well.

He said: "We put the whole thing together on a complete shoestring budget.

"In total we only spent about £250 on some banners and flyers - everything else was begged or borrowed, and it’s a phenomenal achievement that we pulled it off.

"The volunteers who helped on sound desks and taking money on the doors were really the lynchpins of the event.

"It took a lot of effort to get all of the bands booked and the venues were fantastic in letting us use their stages for the day.

"But we all often forget that on the day itself there are lots of these jobs that are absolutely critical - and if it hadn’t been for the help we had from Veolia, The BRIT School and Croydon College I’m not sure how we’d have got through the day."