Ed’s 1950s / 1960s Rock and Roll Dance!

We chatted to VICTA marathon runner Ed about how he organised his Rock and Roll Dance fundraiser! Get some tips on how to set up a swinging fundraising event.

What were the steps you had to take to organise this event?

Step 1: The first step was for me decide on a venue that could comfortably host the band and the community. I run a small village pub called the Red Lion, but there isn’t enough space to have a stage and a dancing area.

Step 2: The next step was approaching our Village Hall, to ask if they would let us hire the venue. I was really lucky as the first place I asked said yes and we hired it for £80. I did plan a backup venue in case it wasn’t available.

Step 3: I then confirmed the capacity for the venue, so I knew how many tickets we could sell. I found out that the venue could accommodate 140, so we planned to sell 100 tickets, as we needed to include the band, the staff/ volunteers and account for a few extra tickets to be sold on the day.

Step 4: Once I had an idea of how many people could attend, I needed to find the entertainment. I spoke to a few different bands and then I found a band who agreed perform for free as the event was for charity.

Step 5: The next step was to decide on how much to sell the tickets for. I ended up choosing to sell them for £5 to make it affordable for everyone in the community. Looking back, I think we could have asked for a £10 donation, however I am really pleased that we sold 120 tickets altogether.

Step 6: The next step was deciding how people would pay for their tickets, I encouraged people to donate straight to my Enthuse page.

Step 7: I decided to have alcohol at the event and so I applied for a license. I kept the drinks cheap, selling them for £1 over the price I bought them for, so with each drink people bought, £1 would be a donation.

Step 8: I wanted to make sure everyone could easily pay for their drinks and so we gave people the option to pay in cash and via Sumup. Sumup is a card reader which connects to your phone and to the account you choose. I also turned my Enthuse fundraising page into QR code, so people could easily donate.

Step 9: I suppose the next step was to enjoy and help out at the event.

Step 10: The final step was to pack up and thank everyone for coming.

What was the highlight of the event for you?

The highlight of the event for me was seeing everyone come together and enjoy themselves. There was a real mixture of ages there, with people who were 15/16 years old right up to people in their 80s. The older attendees were teaching the younger ones how to dance, which was really great to see.

Were there any challenges you faced along the way?

The biggest challenging when organising the event was probably getting a license for the bar. However, it is pretty straight forward, you have to apply to the council at least 10 days before the event takes place. The event was attended by lots of lovely older people, as they were at the door the minute the event started, we quickly released we would need to put out more tables for our guests. It made the dancing area smaller, however it was probably much closer to how it would have been in the 1960s.

Would you organise an event like this again and would you recommend this to others?

I would definitely organise an event like this again, it is a nice thing for the community to be able to come together and listen to music. It is also a great way to fundraise. I think anyone can do it.