2019's sleep out success!

On Friday 14^th June, 74 people joined us for a night under the stars! We were so thrilled that those 74 people were willing to give their beds up for the night and sleep in a car park, all in aid of helping the homeless!

Although the night was tough in parts, we had a great evening and were shocked with how well the weather treated us! Following a day (and previous weeks) of heavy rain showers, we thought we were in for a wet evening – umbrellas and tarpaulins at the ready! However, the clouds parted, and the evening was dry, although a little chilly when the sun went down.

We enjoyed live music from lots of local artists (thank you to Phil Horler, Evie Cosgrove, Leila Aladin, Matt Bond and Jack Humphries who all performed for free), and ate delicious veggie chilli kindly donated by COOK or vegetable soup gifted by Loafers.

Then the darkness creeped in, layers were piling on and we settled down into our sleeping bags, on our pieces of cardboard and hoped for a dry night and some sleep!

This is when the reality of rough sleeping hits home. Trying to get comfy on a concrete floor is not easy and every time you move, you wake up. Not to mention the surrounding noise – birds flying above, cars revving, night-time deliveries, passers by talking. And then came the rain! Having been dry throughout the night, at 4am the rain decided to join us. Hiding in our sleeping bags, we did our best to stay dry – not an easy task with no roof above your head! The rain was here to say and by 5:30am it was light, the birds were giving their morning call and lots of zombie-like people were up and about, ready for breakfast.

As per previous years, we were joined early morning by the amazing Rapid Relief Team, ready to serve our fantastic participants a well deserved and well needed breakfast.

Not only did our participants sleep outside in a car park to raise awareness and open people’s eyes to homelessness, but they also raised an incredible £8415. What a difference this will make to those who have no choice but to spend their nights outside – but for them, they don’t have the comfort of 73 other people, they don’t get an enjoyable night of music and hot food and they certainly don’t get to go home the next day, dry off, have a shower and climb back into their cosy beds.

This money will help us to end this suffering. To ensure that homeless people get the accommodation and support that they so desperately need.

We can’t express our thanks enough! We’d also like to say a huge thank you to everyone who made the sleep out possible: 3D Security, C2 Safety, Paul from PRPhotography, Roy our First Aider, Ian and Charles our Music Techs, Tacchi Morris, our music artists, food donators, our volunteers and participants! 

To view the images from our Big Sleep Out 2019, please click here.

If you couldn’t join us at the Big Sleep Out this year, we hope you can come along next year! This is an annual event and we’ll be sure to let you all know when the next one comes around.