An annual charity show that almost filled the Music Hall last year is returning next month to support the Archie Foundation.
The Around the World in Music concert, put on by Maureen Simpson and the Westhill and District Rotary Club, has been raising funds for good causes around Aberdeen for seven years.
This year, in addition to supporting the Archie Foundation, it will celebrate the musical diversity of British commonwealth countries, including the steel drum rhythms of the Caribbean, ceilidh tunes from Ireland, and Bollywood beats from India, featuring an Aberdeen Indian dance group led by NHS doctor Leena Thomas.
Organisers of the concert, which takes place on Sunday, March 1, at 2.30pm, are hoping to fill the Music Hall’s 1,300 seats after attracting an audience of 1,100 for last year’s performance.
Musical director Mrs Simpson said: “We always do the concert for different charities and this year we’re doing it for the Archie Foundation to support the sick kids at the children’s hospital.
“We’re going to have musicians of all ages and skills on the stage, with 100 kids from Westhill primary as the first performance, a showing from the Hazlewood special school, and a 40-singer strong senior choir.
“In all we’ve got more than 300 musicians and singers taking part, so it’s going to be a massive performance, and I hope it’s a great success as the Archie Foundation is of course a very important charity for a lot of Aberdonians.”
Emma Slesser, a fundraising manager for the Archie Foundation, said: “I am really looking forward to hearing the children sing and watching them dance, I know there has been a lot of rehearsing.
“In Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, when the new reception area is completed next year there will be an area where children’s choirs and other performers will be able to come and entertain the children who can’t get to the Music Hall, and we hope some of them will come and do that.
“The funds raised for Archie at this concert will go directly towards helping us to make the difference for these local sick children with our High 10 for Archie appeal and we are very grateful to Westhill Rotary and everyone involved.”
The Archie Foundation received another boost this week in the form of a £10,000 donation from Wood Group.
The firm raused the funds by organising a Tak Ma Oot night – based on the television dating show Take Me Out – at Nox nightclub in Aberdeen last week.
Garreth Wood, executive chairman of the Speratus Group which owns Nox, and Archie patron, matched the £5,000 raised through ticket sales and on the night to top up the final total.