Big City Sleep to Highlight Brazilian Street Children

A charity is organising a 12 hour sleepathon overnight at Spitalfields Market to raise money, and awareness, for the street children and vulnerable young people in Brazil.

City workers are invited to get involved by stepping out of their comfort zone and “swap their comfortable beds for cardboard boxes” for the night.

The event is being organised by the ABC Trust (Action for Brazil’s Children) and they will be arranging a mix of Brazilian themed entertainment on the night including live music and a performance from the East London Capoeira group.

Each participant will be aiming to raise at least £150 in sponsorship money, with the ABC Trust hoping to raise a minimum of of £15,000 to help provide basic provisions for street children this Christmas.

Andrew Webb – CEO of ABC Trust said “It is vital that people understand that this is not an attempt to undermine or trivialise the issues that street children face, and in no way is it aiming to recreate the everyday life of a Brazilian street child.  The aim of the ‘Big City Sleep’ is to show members of the public what some aspects of life are like for those children who live on the streets in Brazil, the difference is that participants in the ‘Big City Sleep’ can go back to their own comforts and normal life the following day.”

Toby Brown, Spitalfields Estate Director “We are delighted to support the ABC Trust; by using Spitalfields’ public space to host the Big City Sleep fundraising event we are helping to raise awareness and money for some of worlds most vulnerable children”.

To take part in the ‘Big City Sleep’ or for more information, please get in touch: Reference – Big City Sleep, email – lydia.stevens@abctrust.org.uk, or phone: 0207 287 3818

Spitalfields Market Music Festival

What is it with the hay fever this year? Most years I get a few sniffles, though nothing a quick trip to Boots couldn’t sort out, but over the weekend heading out of doors with anything less than a deep-sea-divers suit on caused my face to explode in a liquidy, tissue-destroying mess. As a result I didn’t exactly enjoy the weekend sunshine but now that I’ve found some more anti-hayfever drugs I’m all up for the remainder of the Spitalfields Market Music Festival, which comes to a close on Friday.

Probably the most accessible part of the festival for City folk is that all of this week there are free lunchtime gigs outdoors at the market between 12.30pm and 1.30pm. In addition to that there are evening concerts and for those who don’t fancy sitting down after a day behind a desk there are musical walking tours to be had as well.

If you, like me, work “the other end” of the City then going more than 400 yards at lunchtime can seem like a strange idea but I’d seriously recommend it, particularly if you haven’t been to Spitalfields Market before.

Spitalfields Market “Summer 09″ Music Festival
http://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk