How you can help Uttarakhand victims by attending a concert

Tomorrow night, attending Blue Frog to watch some of the best bands in the country perform will have an added advantage: every rupee you spend for the entry (Rs 500) will be sent to Uttarakhand for flood relief. All the musicians will be performing for free, and Blue Frog will also be hosting the concert without any charge. The concert, called ‘YOU for Uttarakhand’, is the brainchild of Stephanie Fernandes, a 24-year-old copywriter at the Taproot advertising agency. After the disaster happened at Uttarakhand, even the most hardened of us felt a tug at watching the devastation of thousands of lives in the region. But not everyone did something, and it bothered Fernandes. [caption id=“attachment_1017597” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of a music concert. Reuters[/caption] “I knew a lot of my friends felt terrible about what was happening in Uttarakhand,” recalls Fernandes. “But they seemed to lack the motivation to actually do anything about it, whether it was to donate biscuits or money.” Fernandes, a long-time music lover, started reaching out to bands and performance venues for a possible charity show for Uttarakhand. “I first started a Facebook page and Twitter page,” she says. “After that, it was really easy.” Juhi Khanna, who works in the public relations department of a retail company, helped Fernandes with organising the show. “It all happened through social media, through appeals to bands and venues on Facebook and Twitter,” says Khanna. As Fernandes tells it, bands and venues were only to eager to help out. “Blue Frog was from the very beginning enthusiastic to do it. They offered us the venue free of charge. Music band Spud In A Box was also one of the earliest bands to get in touch with us.” All the proceeds from the concert will be donated to the Save the Children NGO, which has undertaken relief work in Uttarakhand as a special project. There will be six bands performing tomorrow from 8pm onwards: Blackstratblues, The Siddharth Basrur Project, Spud in the Box, The Other People, Square Routes and Ryan Dias. Tickets can be purchased at the venue, or on www.bookmyshow.com. For more information on Save the Children NGO, check out their website at www.savethechildren.in. Follow YOU for Uttarakhand on Twitter here, or on Facebook here.