Oxfam at festival Boxes

Here’s how a pop-up music shop can help fight world poverty

Congratulations to Rowan Baylis and his trusty team of volunteers from Oxfam’s Books and Music shop in Newport.

The team were invited to set-up a pop-up music shop at the Isle of Wight Festival and we hear it was a huge success.

Volunteer, Denise, told OnTheWight,

“We were invited by Tim Burgess (lead singer of The Charlatans) to run a pop-up music shop in his Tim Peaks Diner in the Hey Joe Tent at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival.

“We connected with Tim earlier this year through social media by inviting him to our St Thomas Square music shop when he was at the Festival.

“We were shocked when he then asked us to join him instead! Our relationship with Tim really began last December when he and Ian Rankin collaborated with Oxfam to sell a limited edition 12” vinyl record ‘A Little Bit of Powder’ which we sold and promoted in our shop.”

Tim browsing in our pop-up shop

‘Vinyl gems’
Denise went on to say,

“We had a very busy weekend. Tim curated the Hey Joe tent on Sunday and spent a lot of time with us talking to volunteers and buying some vinyl.

“He was a genuinely nice guy and thanked us personally on the day and afterwards on Twitter. He was happy with the ‘vinyl gems’ he found and spent quite some time browsing through our shop. Our volunteers enjoyed being at the Festival and raising much needed funds to help fight poverty around the world.”

Pete Paphides, Guardian journalist
Tim Burgess with his 'vinyl gems'
Tim Burgess with Oxfam volunteers