Red Mud Aid Benefit Wrap-Up

Tuesday, December 14, 2010 - 11:12

Congratulations and Thank You to all those involved in Red Mud Aid. Whether you were a participant, organiser, volunteer, sponsor or media partner it was a party to remember and a great success. We are still waiting for the final numbers, but approximately 400 tickets were sold for 1 million HUF. In addition, money from the food and drink, the extra raffle ticket sales and the auction of the two British Airway tickets raised an additional 450000 huf. From this, we needed to pay 250000 HUF for the sound equipment and 50000 for the big stage, leaving us with a very respectable 1.1 million huf raised on the evening. The money has been given through the local NGO Csalan to the people in Kolontár and the neighboring settlements Devecser and Somlóvásárhely affected by the Red Mud disaster in October, and will be used to help those affected to survive and move away from the now unihabitable area.

Pluses:

Over 400 people had a great party for a great cause
Eight great bands and performers gave their all to provide the entertainment: Mookie Brando and the Second Cousins, Michael Kentish and Jerome, Nick Palmer and Ildiko Bugan, Jamie Winchester, Rorschach, Earl Okin, Tumba y Quema, Keren Hanan...
Raised over 1 million forints for the victims of the disaster
Over 100 local businesses donated raffle/tombola prizes. see full list here
Local expat event organisers such as Treehugger Dan's, Baby Blue Banana, Gift of the Gab, Budsucs, Ignite, WP Ents, Brody House...who normally compete for guests all worked together for the first time in common cause
Cooperation between regularly competing bars The Caledonia, Fun Palace and Guinness House to run the bar together at cost and give all the proceeds to the charity
Local restaurants NY Pizza, Hummus Bar, and Wilkinson's Sausage gave all the food for the night, the proceeds going to the charity. When approached for food donations they kept asking, "and what else can we do for you?"

The list is endless, you and we know who you are, Thanks! Some special mentions include all the volunteers at the door, bar and food stations. Thanks to Nigel Clease from Artosz Izvilag who coordinated all the catering and worked tirelessly serving food all night, and David Wilkinson who slaved in the kitchen heating up not just his sausages but the other food as well. Thanks to Alan Reese and the Budapest Exiles Rugby Team for providing security on the night. Thanks to the Corinthia Hotel for providing the room and staff for the event. Thanks to Patricia Hughes for creating and maintaining the webpage www.redmudaid.org. Thanks to Richard Shaw, Claire Hutton and Neil Watson for jumping into the breach when the original team was burning out and adding fresh energy and taking over some responsibilities. Richard also did all the beautiful graphic design for the posters, leaflets, etc. and Neil brought in a ton of prizes. Caludia Lochner, thanks for hitting the streets and contacting all the German businesses in town for prizes and tickets.Thanks Matt Zomnick for doing the video on the night, and Gergely and his team for the sound system. And thanks Zigo Feri and Nick Palmer for their stage management from dawn to dawn. Media Partners included TimeOut, Funzine, Caboodle, Expatecho, MTV1, Xpatloop, Think!, and the Budapest Times. And of course, there was Treehugger Dan, David Trayford and Howard Cohen from Baby Blue Banana, and Tim Child and Betti Vitovszky from Little Britain Services that conceived, organised and pulled the whole thing off.

Continuation

We are very grateful to the following sponsors who donated prizes to the Big Charity Giveaway in order to raise extra funds for the victims of the Red Mud.

Numerous draws were conducted throughout the evening in between the many acts. Since we have received many prizes on the night, and even after the event, we have decided to continue draws at events held by Baby Blue Banana, Treehugger Dan's and some of the Musicians who took part in the Red Mud Aid event to be held the period from 9 December to 31 December. You can see a list of these events on the front page. https://sites.google.com/site/redmudaid/red-mud-aid

Just some of the sponsors include:

Penta Taxi http://pentataxi.hu/page.php?2

British Airways

Junior Chamber International

Budapest Exiles Rugby Football Club

Magenta http://www.magentar.hu/

@team, for their excellent printing services.

Alessio Kávézó Étterem: http://www.cafealessio.hu/

A-Team Medical Recruitment http://www.ateamhungary.com/

Gavaldi Réka: 3 x 1 hour Tibetan massage session

Alvinci Partners http://www.alvincipartners.hu/

Arriba http://arriba.hu/en/