The West Cumbrian community came together on Sunday to support Hospice at Home West Cumbria by tuning in online to the Cumbria Virtual Festival.

 

Organisers James Cowan, who runs CF Events Limited and Liam Moorhouse who works at Stanwix Park, Silloth decided that in view of events being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic they wanted to do something to bring people together and raise some money for a great local cause.

 

Along with Stuart Fleming, they put their heads together and using their contacts put together a day of brilliant entertainment with amazing West Cumbrian artists which they livestreamed on Facebook from 1.00pm.

 

Stuart, aka Stella the Fella said: “When James & Liam came up with the idea to do an online virtual festival for charity, I was pleased to be involved. I had a few bookings in the diary which were fundraisers for Hospice at Home West Cumbria which have sadly had to be cancelled, so I suggested this as the charity that we could raise funds for. I was overwhelmed during my set on Sunday night when James pointed to the total amount raised so that I could announce it live. We didn’t think we would get as much in donations as we did. I would also like to thank all the other acts that took time out to perform and raise money for Hospice at Home West Cumbria

 

The acts for the day were:

 

Darren Hoey  aka Big D (from Egremont)

Logan Paul Murphy aka The Beatles Boy (from Seaton)

Amy Morton (from Whitehaven)

Steve Byrne (from Cleator Moor)

Heartline (from Maryport)

Billy Walker (from Seaton)

Miss Pearl (from Carlisle)

Jenia (from Stainburn)

Miss Dee (from Moor Row)

Robert Wright as Rod Stewart (from Cleator Moor)

Liam Moorhouse (from Silloth)

Stella the Fella (from Workington)

Not forgetting John Hastings who set off the afternoon with a fantastic poem.

 

Since Sunday there has been over 100,000 views on the videos and the numbers continue to rise. Videos from the day are still available on Cumbria’s Virtual Festival page on Facebook HERE

James said: “When we came up with the idea, we didn’t think for one minute that we would raise such an amazing amount. A massive thank you to all the acts that took part, some of which also took it upon themselves to do additional activities such as eyebrow shaves and press-ups, and to everyone that watched and donated to such a great cause. I woke up on Monday morning to hundreds of messages from people saying how much they enjoyed the day’s entertainment, as well as people asking when we are doing the next one! We do have more plans in the pipeline and will continue trying to raise funds for Hospice at Home West Cumbria through our JustGiving page HERE.  It was a stressful few days before hand, but well worth it and it all came together amazingly on the day.”

 

Jenia, one of the artists who so kindly donated her time said: “It was an honour to be asked to be part of Cumbria’s Virtual Festival. I hope the audience enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed performing. Thank you to everyone at Cumbria’s Virtual Festival, and here’s to the next one!”

 

There’s not long to wait until the next one as the team announced this morning they are holding another virtual event over the weekend of the 23rd and 24th May.

 

More details and the line up to follow soon so watch this space!