Pudsey party raises piles of pounds

The Forum welcomed Pudsey with open arms at Friday’s Children In Need Party.

Things kicked off at 1.30pm, with live broadcasts by the BBC Spotlight team on BBC1 later on in the evening. BBC presenters David Fitzgerald and Victoria Graham hosted the event.

The atmosphere was lively with balloons galore in the main Forum area and ‘Team Pudsey’ helping the event run smoothly. There were two stages indoors and another outside the main entrance to the Forum.

The assembled children’s choir in fine voice

Nick Davies, Guild President, said: “It was a huge success! The events went off smoothly thanks to all the hard work of Jon Bagnall, the student volunteers and of course the fundraisers, making a staggering £5257.66 and there is still more coming in via the justgiving pages.”

The main event of the evening was a choral performance of Simon & Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge over Troubled Water’ from children from the South West and the Channel Islands. They performed at around 8.30pm as part of a live link-up of regional choirs including those from Manchester, Cardiff and Belfast.

Rob Court, a member of the ‘Event Exeter’ team, told The Tab there were 200 children, including 13 who had flown over from the Channel Islands. Rob said: “The children arrived at 10.30am and were really excited all day.”

Other acts that performed at the event were:

• A Cappella group
• Asian Society
• Dance Society
• Shotgun Theatre
• The University’s Soul Choir
• Chamber Orchestra
• Jazz Orchestra

The Tab spoke to a member of the Merchandise Sales Team who said sales of Pudsey goods had been strong all day. She said many people had enquired about how much money from the sales would go straight to the charity, suggesting charitable acts are important to students at Exeter.

The Tab asked Pudsey whether he thought Exeter University had been a great place to hold the Children In Need party. Although he could not voice a reply, he gave us a big (yellow) thumbs up!