Oxfam And Xfm Team Up To Give £50,000 To Oxjam Gig Organisers

• 26th Jul 2007

As part of a unique new partnership, Oxfam and Xfm are giving £50,000 to young people to help them put on events for the Oxjam festival this October. A total of 200 event organisers will each be awarded £250 towards the costs of their Oxjam event, meaning that each one can raise even more to help end poverty. Bands performing at the 200 Xfm Oxjam shows will also have the chance to be featured on Xfm during October.

The project marks the first time a charity and a radio station have distributed individual grants to help small-scale music events take place. Applications will take place online at link from 24 July until 18 August, after which Xfm and Oxfam will pick out 200 events to be awarded the grants.

The events are being funded by v, the youth volunteering charity whose mission is to inspire a new generation of volunteers through activities such as music. The money could be spent on anything from venue hire and paying a soundman to printing up flyers and posters for an event.

Oxjam is a festival with a difference: thousands of events put on by music lovers – from large-scale festivals to local sponsored busks – during October will produce the equivalent of 500 days of continuous music, raising an anticipated £1 million to help Oxfam fight poverty around the world. Around 40,000 musicians and an audience of 300,000 are expected to take part in 3,000 music events in October for Oxjam, making it the biggest music festival ever in the UK.

Gareth Simpson, head of events at Oxfam, said:
“Thousands of people around the country have big ideas about how to be a part of our month of live music, and this will make it even easier for them. You could cover the costs for your event, get your bands onto national radio, and help us raise £1 million to fight poverty, all in one simple step.”

As Oxjam enters its second year, it will be twice as big, with stars such as Kaiser Chiefs, Klaxons, DJ Shadow, Fatboy Slim, Hot Chip, Kasabian and The Kooks involved. Elsewhere, a series of high-profile launch gigs will take place as A-list music stars perform in a specially-converted Oxfam shop in October.

As part of its partnership with v, Oxjam is also working with MTV this year. As in 2006, aspiring bands taking part in Oxjam will have the opportunity to appear on MTV by uploading videos of their Oxjam events to link. The most popular artists as voted for by the public are then filmed by MTV, with an entire MTV show dedicated to the overall winner.

The target of £1 million from Oxjam this year would be enough to provide safe water for almost 1.4 million people, 20,000 emergency shelters or essential medicines for 10,000 villages.

To find out how you can get involved with Oxjam this year, visit link or call 0870 905 9060.

v is the youth volunteering charity launched in May 2006 whose mission is to inspire a new generation of young volunteers in England aged 16-25. v is supported by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office. To find out how to volunteer visit vinspired.com.