Fun&Charity will hold its second charity festival, with games for children and adults, in Moscow’s Yekaterininsky Park on Saturday in an attempt, organizers say, to change the way locals view charity.
The event will have a hundred different things to do, organizers say, from parkour freestyle-running courses to slingshot competitions, street football and pingpong.
The aim is to allow people to engage in a range of recreational activities for a charitable cause.
“We want to make charity more popular in Russia,” said Yekaterina Suchinova, from marketing agency 360sca, which is organizing the festival. “We are doing this by showing that people can be charitable not only through money transfers, but also, for instance, by creating a logo if you’re a designer, creating a web site for a fund if you’re a programmer, or writing a lonely woman a letter every month if you’re a writer.”
Money raised at the event will go to a wide range of charities that support children, the elderly and the disabled, among others.
For the more sedentary, board games such as chess, checkers and Scrabble will be provided, and there will be classes in craftsmanship, where children can learn how to make their own toys, kites, finger puppets and dolls out of various fabrics and other materials.
An art flea market arranged by ArtGarageSale will put up products for sale, with at least 20 percent of proceeds going to charity.
Design center Artplay will also be taking part in the festival, with an art exhibition called “Who to Be?” that makes use of sculptures and other art by children.
One sponsorship contribution to the festival came from Aktsia magazine, whose staff drank liters of condensed milk to provide dozens of empty cans to be used as targets for the festival’s slingshot competition.
A number of other companies have sponsored the festival, including the maker of Old Spice deodorants, whose brand manager noted on the Fun&Charity web site that the company wants to “show that charity is something dignified for real men.”
The first Fun&Charity festival saw more than 200 participants, 3,000 guests and managed to raise a total of 84,590 rubles for various charities.
Visitors can choose whether to pay the optional entry fee of 100 rubles.
The Fun&Charity Fest takes place on Saturday at Yekaterininsky Park located between Parkovaya Ulitsa and Akademichesky Prospekt. Metro Dostoevskaya. Tel. 251-9784, http://community.livejournal.com/funandcharity.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.
