A mass singing project that brings singers from many choirs together in concert to raise money for WaterAid projects in Rwanda. Sing For Water has raised well over a million pounds for WaterAid projects thanks to the tireless work of the creative teams, producers, choir leaders and singers in the UK and beyond.
Smaller events are happening all around the country, sometimes in inventive ways like in swimming pools and on piers. Catherine Reiser, formally of Thames Festival, with whom I cooked up the first versions of it, organised a large one in Australia as part of the Commonwealth Games which I sang in with some Georgian friends and other big events have taken place in Bristol and Cardiff. Thanks to EVERYONE who has made it happen and made a difference to so many people’s lives.
Story
It started twenty something years ago when I had the idea to raise £1000 for water projects over a weekend of singing workshops and since then it was raised around £1.5 million. I believe that the project has grown so much for two reasons. The first is the magical intoxication of singing fabulous music together with hundreds of people combined with the huge feel good factor of making a difference. The second is the fact that the invitation to leaders around the country and abroad from the start was to invent it their way rather than to follow a set format, so that each group making an event is autonomous and can follow their own ideas and creativity, according to each place’s needs. And thus many dedicated and inspired choir leaders and producers have developed the project in their own way to create memorable mass singing fundraising events. Ro