It’s Sunday 18th August 2024 in Birmingham. Over 1000 musicians are setting up to perform a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity show at the Utilita Arena Birmingham to two of Linkin Park’s most famous songs. Alongside famous musicians to raise money for Uprawrs Mental Health charity.
For the past few weeks, money has been raised for Uprawrs Mental Health charity to help provide mental health free counselling and mental health for the alternative community so far at the time of writing this post over £107,621 has been raised by some incredibly hard-working people. The top crowd fundraiser of each musical section is given the incredible opportunity to go on stage and perform with L1nkin P4rk cover band.
The buzz around this event for the past couple of weeks has made a huge difference and has been building up for an excellent evening.
Being allowed inside the arena for sound check gives you the real experience of the event which is about to come while walking in between hundreds of talented people who are not only playing Linkin Park songs but creating music between each other while warming up. Before doors, the musicians were allowed to wander around, buy merch, food and stretch their legs but the ones who stayed in the main arena bowl started forming connections whether it was with friends they had only just met or talking to other artists and performers.
Sean Smith (The Blackout, Raiders and Sappenin podcast) is acting as host for this evening. Sean has always been such a kind and incredibly talented person so he fitted into this role so perfectly.
Playing through a sound check with Many talented artists you experience such raw emotions! As doors opened watching 4000 people fill up the seating area with 1000 musicians taking their place ready and in preparation for the evening ahead.
L1nkin p4rk (Linkin Park Tribute Band) came out performing a selection of songs for us to warm up the evening. No circle pits tonight but the floor was alive with the musicians who were waiting to perform clapping and singing along.
Sean Smith comes back out on stage welcoming the other talent who are going to be performing tonight Creeper, Bullet For My Valentine, Mallory Knox, Defects and many many more.
The musicians are waiting and kicking in to perform the first cover of ‘Numb’. It was truly a special moment as the count began seeing everyone begin and playing in a sequence moment is extra special. Waiting for the artist to perform on stage was spectacular.
Next up we had a special message from Jared from Bowling For Soup on the big screen who couldn’t be with us for the evening events but gave encouraging words and talked about his own mental health issues and told us we weren’t alone.
For the final 1000 Lights song with everyone we are treated to “Somewhere I Belong” For this, I was up in the stands and watching so many people cheering and standing up and clapping for their loved ones below. Also having a bird’s eye view of 200 drummers hitting their kit at the same time is absolutely incredible!
The evening led on to a short talk from the radio host Tom and the creator of 1000 Lights talking for a few moments before breaking for a short interval before the final part of the night.
Overall the outcome was a fantastic event, Uprawr Mental Health charity has done an incredible thing which is going to bring so much help to people all over. But I can’t just give credit to them but to the performers who did the fundraising and pulled together for a fantastic event!
As of this post, Uprawr is still taking donations if you wish to help donations are still being currently collected on Just Giving . Videos and sound recordings will be uploaded to YouTube and Spotify in the coming days.
Artists: As December Falls, Bullet For My Valentine, Bury Tomorrow, caskets, Creeper, Darren Redick, Defects, Dream State, From Inside, Funeral For A Friend, Hacktivist, Holding Absence, Mallory Knox, Raiders, Stone Broken, The Blackout, valhalla awaits
