A Community Party for the East End

Thankyou *so* much again to everyone who’s backed our campaign. Maybe we didn’t get there in the end money-wise, but wow the support and goodwill behind us has blown us away! We love you all. After a bit of deliberation (ok, not that much!) our team would still really like to put something on at the Cumberland, on the date we’ve booked in (Covid allowing, as always). With a reduced capacity & down-sized programme (no expensive fences, security etc), we reckon we can do something just as lovely - just a bit smaller and (even) more D.I.Y. So… would you consider still supporting us? We’ve set up a GoFundMe page, here (you might need to copy & paste): https://www.gofundme.com/f/love-is-the-map-community-party-for-the-east-end The site asks us to set a target, but this one isn’t all-or-nothing - so whatever happens your donation will go straight into our pot for the event. We’ll work with whatever we manage to raise, and we promise to use every penny to make it as lush as it can be! The Spacehive pledges won’t leave your accounts, so it’s basically just like starting from scratch. We’d be so grateful if you’d be happy to join us over there instead! ALSO… after our Spacehive campaign closes (at midnight tonight), we’ll no longer be able to use their update tool to email you. So - VERY IMPORTANT - if you’d like us to keep in touch & let you know how it’s going then please, please, please sign up to our mailing list! You can find it here: https://tinyurl.com/y298y36y Thanks so much everyone. What a ride! Despite the ups and downs, we’re getting pretty good at going with the flow… and we really can’t wait to see you on 7th August. Big love, from The Love is the Map team xxx Instagram: @loveisthemap

Huge thanks, Well Newcastle Gateshead Arts Fund! Their generous pledge of £750 is very gratefully received. On the last day of our campaign, we’re reflecting on the last 6 or 7 months. We might not make it to our target, but could we have done more? Honestly, we’re not sure we could! We’re not an ‘organisation’ - we’re just a bunch of people wanting to make a good thing happen. Since the end of last year the Love is the Map team have given countless hours, evenings & weekends to this strange, amazing project. Most people around full time jobs, and all of us while managing our own helpings of apocalyptic 2020/21 life. Despite everything - doing this for the first time, during a global pandemic & primarily on Zoom - we’ve managed to: - Set ourselves up with a constitution, policies, bank account, logo & Instagram channel - Navigate council application processes & find an official event manager willing to take a risk on us - Map, get infrastructure quotes, risk assess & write funding bids/project pages for two, yes two whole different event sites (thankyou the Cumberland for saving us when site 1 went down the pan at short notice!) - Survey local people, build relationships with community & faith groups, recruit volunteers, take donations of craft materials & run decoration-making sessions - Draft a lush programme & plan how to promote it - Attract loads of lovely support for our crowdfunder, pro bono assistance from expert angels & general goodwill for the project. We think that’s pretty good going. So... if we don’t hit target, is all lost? Hell no :) We’ve made new friends in our community, learned more than we could have imagined & started to build a beautiful thing. It would be such a waste to give up - we still really want to put on some version of this event. You may get an email from Spacehive saying we've extended the campaign for a couple of days - that's just so we can continue to update you as we work out next steps. So please stay tuned - we’ll be back in touch to let you know what's happening ASAP! Thanks & love, The Love is the Map team xxx Follow us on Instagram: @loveisthemap

Hi lovely supporters, We might have been quiet but we've been working our socks off over here at LITM! Enlisting volunteers, running decoration-making sessions, meeting with lots of local groups and artists, getting the schedule ready & sorting the nitty gritty of the event plan with our event manager. This whole thing is no mean feat when most of the team are trying to fit meetings around their full time day jobs. Time flies when you’re busy bees - how is it nearly the end of June already?! Happily, this morning we heard that North of Tyne Combined Authority have pledged £2000 to our project! Their amazing support takes us a step closer (and over half way) to making the party happen. However, if we don’t hit our target we sadly get **nothing at all**! So…. we really need your help! You can continue to support us by: - Sharing our project page far and wide - please do pass it on to your friends, family, neighbours, local shopkeeper (& any rich benefactors you happen to be friends with 😉) - Letting us know if you have any ideas for last minute donors we could chat to. It’s going to be tight, but we know we’ve got lots of support so we reckon we can do it. Pledges of any size at all are hugely appreciated, and they don’t come out of people’s accounts until the crowdfunder campaign closes on 7 July (in case that helps for payday). Huge thanks for all your support so far, and please keep everything crossed for us! P.s. Don’t forget to give our Instagram page a follow @loveisthemap 😀 Big love & thanks, The Love is the Map team x

Wow everyone, thanks so much for blowing our socks off with your support so far. In only a week, an amazing **96 backers** have pledged **£4830** towards our lovely event! We hope this means you’ll be joining us on the day, too? Whether you’ve shared our campaign, pledged £5 or a £100 pounds (or, in the case of the Cumberland Arms, supported us in-kind with the space to make it happen...) you have our heartfelt gratitude - and you’re helping us to bring people together at this little turning point in history, when we maybe, just maybe, have a chance to try a different way of doing things. It’s all hands on deck at the minute for the LITM team - getting the programme sorted, designing posters and organising decoration-making sessions. Have you seen our survey about celebrations yet? If not, and you’re local to the area, check it out here! https://tinyurl.com/wf78m9kk We’re keeping everything crossed that we’ll hit our target, so please do...: - Keep pledging! - Pester your friends & family to support us too - Share the link to our project with everyone you know! :) Thankyou, we love you all. Love is the Map xxx