Help Barnsley Youth Choir get to the Fringe Festival

Barnsley Youth Choir is a remarkable organisation that supports over 450 children in an area of significant deprivation. The pandemic has had a significant impact on the children involved and their families. This tour will provide 180 children with a life changing experience and an opportunity to perform once more on the international stage. It will do so much to boost their self-esteem and confidence after 2 such challenging years.

We plan to offer 3 separate groups of children the experience of a lifetime, performing to an international audience in the iconic Greyfriars Kirk. After being starved of experiences like this for the last 2 years, this trip will provide so many benefits to their mental health and wellbeing. 

Before the pandemic over 1 in 4 children lived in poverty in Barnsley. This situation has only worsened and we find this such a staggering and sad statistic. BYC aims to redress this imbalance and give young people amazing life-changing opportunities regardless of their financial background. We realise that many of our children cannot afford to be involved in such trips but we refuse to let money be a barrier to them taking part. 

The choir runs a bursary scheme to ensure that all children can take part and works hard to fundraise to make this opportunity available to all. We are inclusive and focus on providing the best for these amazing young people - irrespective of their financial backgrounds. 

The choir is run by volunteers who received the Queens Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of the exceptional work they do to make these experiences possible for our children.

In 2017, BYC took part in the European Choir Games in Riga, Latvia. Against all odds it won 4 gold medals and 4 Category Wins against affluent choirs, many of them adult choirs, from across the world. 

Clip from Awards Ceremonies in Riga 2017 - CLICK HERE

The choir is now ranked 5th in the World in its category.....it's an incredible story. 

World Rankings - CLICK HERE

This summer we are keen to take up to 180 young people for the trip of their lives - they will perform in the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Edinburgh on the international stage. This is the largest arts festival in the world and will include over 50,000 performances from groups from across the globe. Our members will perform in the amazing Greyfriars Kirk twice per day and also perform in a number of other venues in Edinburgh. We hope to perform on the BBC stage once again as we did in 2016. 

This project is hugely ambitious. 180 children, some as young as 7 years old, will be accompanied by volunteers and a professional band. This is about inclusion and raising aspirations for those that face significant challenges. 

We need to raise £50,000 in total to make this project work. We've already made a fantastic start! The children themselves are busy fundraising and will certainly do all they can to raise the money they need. This is a collective effort - even those that can afford to go will raise money so that all children can take part. 

They are working so hard to raise money themselves and are not wanting pay outs - they just need some help along the way. We hope that this Crowdfunding Project will help raise £10,000 which will make a huge difference to this project. 

Without your help we won't be able to make this happen for them. 

In return for your kindness and support we can offer a number of rewards for pledges. There are some wonderful rewards on offer and we hope that there's something for everyone. Perhaps the most wonderful pledge you could make would be to 'Sponsor a Child' to take part. Please pledge if you can, safe in the knowledge that every penny will go to a very worthy cause. As a registered charity with a track record of success you can be reassured that any pledge will make its way directly to young people who really need and deserve it. 

Thank you in advance for supporting our project. The choir has worked so hard to support members throughout the pandemic (here is a magazine that talks about this INSIDER MAGAZINE - CLICK HERE) but we are desperate to provide them with this very special experience after staying so positive and resillient. 

It's going to make a massive difference to a group of children who are really deserving of this opportunity.

Thank you in advance for supporting in any way that you can. 

Mat Wright MBE