Dreamscape – Toyah Willcox Fansite

Free-to-view Woo Fest streams in £13,000 for hospice

An award-winning county music festival which switched to an online format because of social distancing measures has been hailed a huge success after it raised more than £13,000 for a Worcestershire-based hospice.

Woo Fest was streamed live to homes and gardens around Worcestershire and beyond on Saturday (July 4) and featured a mix of live and pre-recorded sets from big-name performers including Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Grant Nicholas, from Feeder, and Toyah Willcox as well as local acts.

• Continue reading at the Worcester Observer. Browse our Woo Fest news.

The entire, almost 8hr, Virtual Woo Fest 2020 is now available online to watch again, or watch for the first time if you missed it on Saturday. Toyah contributed a performance of It’s A Mystery to the festival, which raised £13,000 for St. Richard’s Hospice. Donations are still welcome, with details of how to do so at the website. Click on the screen shots of Toyah below to go to the festival page. Toyah’s performance is at approximately 4hrs 16m in! (Screenshots from a video that is © Toyah Willcox)

An award-winning county music festival which switched to an online format because of social distancing measures has been hailed a huge success after it raised more than £13,000 for a Worcestershire-based hospice.

Woo Fest, which was streamed live to homes and gardens around Worcestershire and beyond on Saturday (4th July), featured a mix of live and pre-recorded sets from big-name performers including Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Grant Nicholas, from Feeder, and Toyah Willcox as well as local acts.

Hosted by Richard ‘Hursty’ Hurst and BBC Hereford & Worcester’s Nina Das Gupta, the free-to-view festival has raised £13,245.57 so far with music-lovers donating as they watched.

Luke Simons, festival organiser, said: “We’ve been blown away by everyone’s response to a virtual festival here in Worcestershire. We had 92 individual musicians in 24 sets – across a range of genres – keen to give our wonderful county a brilliant day and support the care St Richard’s provides locally at the same time”.

• Continue reading at strichards.org.uk.

And that’s a wrap! A massive thanks to everyone involved in today’s Virtual Woo Fest. An incredible day of music only possible through an incredible human effort at the current time. And supported by our incredible Worcestershire community raising £12,896. Thank you from us all.

NB. Since this post the total was updated again.

Your Virtual Woo Fest donations continued into the small hours taking us to an incredible. £13,245.57!

• Continue reading at St Richard’s Hospice at Twitter.

Following last night’s four-hour Let’s Rock Lockdown Fest 2, which Toyah contributed live performances of Dance In The Hurricane and I Want To Be Free to, comes today’s Virtual Woo Fest 2020.

The Next Woo Fest – Virtual Woo!

Normal Woo Fest is cancelled due to Covid-19 however we have moved to an online festival will which will take place on 4th of July.

Supported by the wonderful DRP Group at their studios in Hartlebury. The day will run in a similar way to Comic Relief with free to air viewing but with different donation opportunities to St Richard’s Hospice. The day will include both live and pre-recorded performances from many great musicians including the odd celebrity!

Virtual Woo Fest – bringing the festival to your homes and gardens

Woo Fest music festival is an award winning multi-genre music festival for all ages that raises funds for St Richard’s Hospice, Worcester, England. It’s set in a beautiful location near Upton upon Severn and has gone from strength to strength since its launch in 2015 raising over £57K with every single penny from every ticket going to the hospice

It has grown from a small festival of friends and family to the first festival on the calendar for many new friends.

• Visit the official Woo Fest website. Watch today’s virtual Woo Fest by clicking here or below. See a larger version of the festival flyer.

Woo Fest secures big-name acts in new virtual format

An award-winning county music festival taking place virtually this summer, because of social distancing measures, has secured new big-name acts including Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Grant Nicholas, from Feeder, and Toyah Willcox.

Woo Fest, which will be streamed live to homes and gardens around Worcestershire and beyond on Saturday 4th July, will feature a mix of live and pre-recorded sets and will be hosted by Richard ‘Hursty’ Hurst. Previously confirmed performers include Nigel Clark from Dodgy, Andy Bennett, formerly of Ocean Colour Scene, Nick Parker and a host of Woo Fest regulars.

The family-friendly festival, which donates every penny to St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester, was set up in 2015 by Luke Simons and his sister, Ria, in memory of their Dad, John. Last year Woo Fest was named Best Small Festival at the UK Festival Awards in London.

Luke Simons, festival organiser, said: “We’ve been blown away by the response from artists keen to take part in a virtual festival this year and support the care that St Richard’s provides locally at the same time.

“With the help of our friends at creative communication agency DRPG, who are streaming the event live on their website, we’re hoping to bring some festival fun to those missing live music events and so much more this summer.”

Woo Fest will take place on Saturday 4th July and will be live streamed on the DRPG Communications website virtualwoofest.drpg.events – Woo Fest will get underway at 3pm and run until 10.30pm.

• Continue reading at strichards.org.uk. See more info on Virtual Woo Fest 2020. The festival will air online here.