A benefit concert and fundraising dinner at the Vancouver Island Conference Centre will support post-earthquake recovery efforts in Nanaimo’s Japanese sister city, Saitama.
The city of more than 1.2 million people was not hit as hard as other communities in northeastern Japan, but is receiving fallout from the quake in the form of refugees and food shortages created when farmland was deluged by tsunamis following the quake.
Indie Entertainment, in partnership with English Entertainment, the City of Nanaimo and the conference centre, hopes to lend a hand with cash raised from the benefit concert and dinner.
Malvern Makuyana, English Entertainment operations director, said 10 bands donating their time and talents will perform throughout the evening.
“It’s all local bands, so we’ve got anywhere from The Racket Club to Iris and Melissa Hill,” Makuyana said. “We’ve got at least 10 acts for the evening.”
A Chinese auction will also be featured at the event.
Nanaimo merchants and service providers have dedicated their products to the auction. Bidding is done by purchasing colour-coded tickets, which are placed in bowls in front of the items. The bidder who puts the most tickets in a bowl wins that item.
“We’re trying to come up with unique ways of raising money, because at the end of the day we’re bombarded with fundraisers in our beautiful city,” Makuyana said.
He said the conference centre and the city have helped to keep ticket prices low to attract the maximum number of people to the event.
The event happens April 14, starting at 6 p.m. Tickets are $50 and 100 per cent of proceeds will support the city of Saitama.
Tickets are on sale at Diners Rendezvous, Signage, Catwalk Fashions and Hu’o’ng Lan Restaurant or by calling English Entertainment at 250-619-6344.
“We encourage people to take a moment of their time to come out and support humanitarian efforts,” Makuyana said. “We just really need to take a moment and give back.”
