Space Camp 48

Last Saturday we spent the weekend in North Wales for our charity family festival, Space Camp 48. You would think that a web development company organising a festival was just a pipe dream, but Jon and the team were determined to make it happen, and more than that, make it a really special community event.

We have a DNA of values that runs through our business, and one of those core values is support. We wanted to create an event, which would not only be great fun, but would also effectively say a big thank you – not just to our employees, but also to our support networks. As we thought more about it we realised that our support network is much bigger than just ‘us’, it includes all of those people that help us to do our everyday jobs; whether it be our partners, children, families, friends, business partners, suppliers, customers, and so on. It’s not often we get the opportunity to bring all of these personalities together and that’s where Space Camp 48 came in.

Touched by the amazing work of the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital we decided that our family event was the perfect fit to help raise funds for the hospital’s Many Hands helipad campaign. Having young families ourselves, the whole team were able to understand the importance of supporting the hospital and wanted to get involved in helping them to continue to offer their specialist services not just nationally, but also internationally.

Saturday 9th July

We’re certainly no event organisers, but as a team of Marketers and Creatives we embraced the challenge of organising a festival. We’ve been to Glastonbury, so how hard can it be right? We picked the date, chose our beautiful scenic venue, and then the invites made their way to our invitees.

After checking the weather forecast religiously all week, we knew we were in for a wet weekend but still remained remarkably optimistic. However, after waking up on Saturday morning all small hopes we did have were well and truly dampened! With a quick re-jig of activities from outdoor to indoor we still managed to have a brilliant day.

Entertaining both children and adults was no easy challenge and the activities were carefully picked to ensure we found the perfect happy medium. The party started from midday with Dr Zigs giant bubble party, a craft workshop, a dance & performance workshop from the Travelling Light Circus, beautiful face painting by Sarah Cowan, games, and more. A particular highlight of mine was watching a room full of adults hula-hooping like crazy – the children didn’t even get a look in!

We thought of everything (we think) and to keep us all fuelled we arranged a hog roast, hot dogs, clay oven pizzas, and of course a well stocked bar. There was also a carnival style popcorn cart, candy floss cart, and pick & mix. In order for attendees to enjoy a drink or make a weekend of it, there was the option to pitch your own tent or opt-in and experience glamping in our VIP tipi village.

It’s not a festival without great music …
and from 4pm the music began! We scouted four of the best up-and-coming local musicians to play at our festival. Our first band was Rivet City, a talented alternative indie band from Manchester with a unique sound. Next up was Mosley Bar, four young lads from Liverpool with an upbeat Arctic Monkeys-esque sound. Third on stage was FAITALA, an indie ‘pop-pop’ band whose sound was mellow and entrancing. Then after watching the wonderful Travelling Light Circus Show do their thing, the live music continued with Just Dave; a lively and dynamic three-piece cover band who knew every weird and wonderful request we had for them! And finally when the night was nearing, on came DJ Nolan who turned up the tempo and got the crowd dancing.

What I loved about our line up was how versatile and varied it was, all of the bands and artists are extremely talented and had an energy on stage which was electric. We would just like to say another huge thank you to them for making Space Camp 48 so memorable and helping support our Many Hands campaign.

How we did it?

• We secured event sponsors; thank you to our sponsors We Are Adam, Klarna, Dotmailer, and Smith & Smith PR who all backed our crazy idea and helped support the event.
• We sold tickets for our festival via Eventbrite for a charity donation of £10 per adult, children were able to attend for free.
• We also held a boozy raffle and people kindly donated on the day.

In total we raised £1,909, which our generous MD Jon has kindly offered to match … taking our Many Hands grand total to £3,818. Not only did we raise funds for the hospital but we also raised awareness.

In recognition of our efforts we were shortlisted for the Many Hands Finale, an award given to the company with the most innovative fundraising idea. We attended the finale last night and pitched our idea to a panel of four judges including Dragon’s Den star, Theo Paphitis. Congratulations to our competition Online Ventures Group and Archies who were also shortlisted, and to the winner Gary Chaplin for his ‘Cycling Everest’ challenge.

As a business, it’s important for us to be connected, collaborative, and contribute to our community. By working with the RMCH, the charity has now also become a part of that support network we mentioned earlier. Space 48 are excited to support the charity further and have got more fundraising ideas in the pipeline – watch this space!

Thank you to everybody who attended Space Camp 48 – you can view the photo’s here.