Sage Gateshead reaches £4 million fundraising target

This is so important to our future and has been a huge community effort. Many hundreds of our audience members have named seats and made donations, and many people have taken on their own fundraising initiatives such as the 24 Hours of Folk music marathons and the players of Royal Northern Sinfonia with their Grade-One-A-Thon (taking Grade One exams on an instrument they had never played before). And of course we’ve had fantastic support from Sting through his benefit performances of ‘The Last Ship’ earlier this year and a fantastic contribution from our friends at Sage Group, alongside major donations from Dame Margaret Barbour, Sir Peter Vardy, the Stuart Halbert Foundation and Benfield Charitable Trust.

This is great news. We’re lucky in this borough to have such strong cultural organisations, which are a huge asset to Gateshead. Ten years after it opened, Sage Gateshead has a real place in the heart of our community. The team there work with people from across our region, of all ages and backgrounds – from mums and babies to many of our elder citizens – all enjoying the many benefits that music can bring. The success of this Appeal will really help that continue.