The 13th July 2010 marked the twenty fifth anniversary of Live Aid, a revolutionary means of fundraising using cutting edge technology of the time. Live Aid was inspired by the terrible famine in Ethipoia in 1985 and was the brain child of Bob Geldof and Midge Ure. Why not hold a tribute event to raise money for some excellent causes and have a laugh. All you need to sort out is participants, a venue and portable stages.

So, what was so revolutionary about Live Aid? Live Aid was the first truly international concert as there were two venues, one in London and one in Philadelphia and the performances were showed live on TV using satellite TV technology, for the first time. The two concerts overlapped slightly but from the start time of the UK concert to the finish time of the American concert was sixteen hours.

Queen opened the London concert, getting Wembley stadium going, before being followed by bands such as Status Quo, Coldstream Guards, Elvis Costello, David Bowie, U2, The Who and naturally Bob Geldof with the Boomtown Rats. The Philadelphia concert featured artists such as Madonna, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, Keith Richards, Ozzy Osbourne, Led Zeppelin and Duran Duran. Phil Collins decided that once wasn’t enough and performed at both concerts thanks to the Concorde!

It is believed that the aim was to raise 1 million pounds from the concerts. Throughout the TV broadcasts the BBC presenters were repeating a phone number and address for donations every twenty minutes. However, after seven hours of the London concert Bob Geldof was informed that 1.2 million pounds had been raised and he decided that this wasn’t good enough. He No prescription cialis approached the BBC presenter, who was at the time giving the address to send cheques to and shouted “F*ck the address, let’s get the numbers”. Following this donations are reported to have increased to 300 pounds per second! 150 million pounds is believed to have been raised as a direct result of the Live Aid concerts.

Twenty five years on why not host a tribute to Live Aid and do some fundraising of your own. No pressure, 150 million pounds is quite a tall order; why not aim for 1,500 pounds? You could organise a tribute event or do a modern Live Aid for your town. Involve your whole community by organising the event through a local School, Church or Leisure Centre. All you need are some interested participants, a few portable stages, a venue and a Facebook and Just Giving page. It could be a children’s event, with the summer holidays to hone their performances, or an adults event re-living the real thing and having a laugh. There are plenty of good causes out there which could do with some help and since people do not have that much spare cash do it as a fun night out, donating what you would have spent on a meal.

Author Bio: John McE writes articles on a number of subjects including portable stages, folding tables, stacking benches, seating and furniture accessories.

Category: Culture and Society/Education
Keywords: portable stages, folding tables, folding chairs, portable staging