World AIDS Day Charity Concert – Together We Stand raises over £3,000 for Lunch Positive, the weekly HIV lunch club.
The Church of St Mary the Virgin in Kemptown was, once again, the venue for the sell-out annual World AIDS Day concert which brings together LGBT+ music groups from Brighton and the surrounding area, for one of the premier events in the city’s LGBT+ community calendar.
The evening raised a total of £3,310.11 of which £465.63 came from the bucket collection alone.
Music groups participating included Resound Male Voices, Rebelles Female Voices, The Sweet Chilli Singers, The Rainbow Chorus, The Actually Gay Men’s Chorus, The Brighton Belles, Qukulele and Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus.
The evening was compered by Finola Brophy and Paul Charlton, ex-chairs of the Rainbow Chorus and Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus respectively.
Closing remarks were given by the Service Manager of Lunch Positive Gary Pargeter, who thanked the crew and performers who were all donating their time for free.
He said: “We are hugely grateful to everyone involved in staging this year’s World AIDS Day Concert, and for the tremendous support of everyone attending. That so many people come together as a community to support people with HIV is a poignant reflection that the care of people with HIV remains important. At a time when HIV stigma remains a very real issue, it is also such a powerful demonstration that empathy and acceptance also exist amongst so many.
The concert is always a wonderful event, moving, inspiring and cathartic. Lunch Positive continues to respond to the often complex challenges of HIV which many people still experience, and we would not be able to do this without the support that this annual World AIDS Day event provides. Thank you from all of us at Lunch Positive for helping us provide our service over the year ahead.”
The concert concluded with all the evening’s performers returning to the stage to join in an uplifting number specially composed for the evening by Brighton Gay Men’s Chorus, musical director, Marc Yarrow, entitled, Together we stand.
All proceeds from the concert £3,310.11 are going to Lunch Positive, the HIV lunch club who provide a healthy meal to positive people each Friday at Dorset Gardens Methodist Church in Kemptown.
With an £11,725 grant awarded by the Rainbow Fund, the Rainbow Café will be an exciting new initiative for LGBT+ people living with dementia or memory loss and their friends, families and carers.
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