12 Hour Festival of Entertainment raises £20k for NHS & NARS on VE Day
On Friday 8th May 2020, over 50 volunteers including Potters Resort entertainers and special guests took to your screens from their own homes, to bring you the ‘Over The Rainbow Festival’; a non-stop, 12 hour feast of live music, comedy, games and interviews, all in aid of our heroes on the frontline of the NHS, and NARS Charity (Norfolk Accident Rescue Service).
Throughout the charity event the team paid tribute to heroes past and present, as the country celebrated VE Day on its 75th Anniversary.
A challenging target of £10,000 was set, and our amazing guests and facebook community did not let us down raising a total of £11,324 as the final few minutes ticked by. With the Potters Friends Foundation matching the first £10,000 raised, a grand total of £21,324 will be shared between our amazing NHS and the wonderful team of volunteers at NARS, for whom John Potter is patron.
Ever the good sports, Buzby dunked himself in the North Sea following a contribution by Tim Steel and family, and Mark Brewer waved goodbye to his 43 year old beard having hit the magical £20,000. But the reality is, there were many brilliant moments throughout the day that were enjoyed by thousands of viewers.
The event also highlighted, if we didn’t know already, the amazing talent we have at Potters who, despite not working during this unprecedented crisis, are determined to carry on entertaining. Even before the event, their voluntary efforts had racked up nearly 1 million online views.
While the event would not have been possible without the voluntary and charitable efforts of the team, special thanks must be given to Mike Scott, Tara Scott, Nicky Hathway and Nigel Pattle who pulled the event together in a matter of weeks and worked tirelessly behind the scenes on the day to ensure everything ran smoothly.
Mike said: “Thanks to the team, we’ve done lots of live streams since the Resort sadly had to close. Even though they’re not working, they still wanted to continue bringing smiles to our fans and guests during this challenging time, whatever it takes. While the live streams up to this point had been massively popular, we couldn’t have imagined the support we received on the day throughout the 12 hours. It was a mammoth task bringing it all together and we slept well that night, but when you look at how much was raised for these amazing causes, it was absolutely worth the effort.”
Throughout the day, we stopped in on NARS who explained how any donations help their cause. NARS are a team of voluntary first responders providing critical care in Norfolk, to support the East of England Ambulance Service. In 2018, the Potters Friends Foundation donated £10,000 to the charity to launch its very first Community First Responders vehicle. In 2019 John Potter was asked to become patron and shortly after a further donation of £6,000 was made to upgrade their first response support.
You can still watch the festival here, although please be aware, we are no longer accepting donations for the event.