Theatre and performance venues across Norwich plus Norwich Cathedral are joining forces to help support the families of the terrorist attack in Manchester.
From this afternoon, bucket collections will be held around performances, events and services with every penny going to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, which has been set up by Manchester City Council and the British Red Cross.
Those venues taking part are the Maddermarket Theatre, Norfolk and Norwich Festival, Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich Cathedral, Norwich Playhouse, Norwich Puppet Theatre, Norwich Theatre Royal, Norwich University Of The Arts, Open, The Garage, The Halls, University of East Anglia including the Sainsbury Centre For Visual Arts, and Writers’ Centre Norwich.
It aims to give audiences at a wide range of events across the city the chance to support those concert-goers and their families who were injured or lost their lives.
The first collections will happen after this afternoon’s (May 24) performance of Million Dollar Quartet, starring Jason Donovan, at Norwich Theatre Royal.
Stephen Crocker, chief executive of Norwich Theatre Royal, said: “You will appreciate that this is, in part, a personal and emotionally charged thing for me. Manchester was my home until very recently and my time there was spent supporting a thriving culture of going out to see live performance.
“However, setting my own feelings about Manchester aside, it is also the freedom to do this wholesome and fulfilling act that has been so savagely attacked. It is so heartening to see so many performance venues respond in solidarity.”
The fund itself will offer direct support to the victims of the attack, their families and dependants, and that work has already begun with Red Cross volunteers offering emotional support to those directly affected.
The Lord Mayor of Manchester, Councillor Eddy Newman, said: “The We Love Manchester Emergency Fund has been established to swiftly provide funds to the families of victims of the attack at the Manchester Arena to help them to cope at this incredibly difficult time.”