Charlie Sloth to play set in Northampton DJ’s 48-hour virtual festival to raise money for the NHS

A DJ from Northampton has organised a virtual festival that will take place during the Easter weekend.

Ian Sutherland, who has had a lot of work postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, took it upon himself to organise a 48-hour, non-stop DJ session that will be streamed live to people’s homes.

In less than a week, Ian has organised 48 DJs, including Charlie Sloth, to play a one hour set each, in order to create an all day and all night festival to raise money for the NHS.

He said: “I wanted to learn how to stream so I set up a group of us local DJs to ask those who are doing it already.

“We started talking about all playing together like a mini radio station and then one of them said let's do an event this weekend.”

Since then, Ian has been in contact with local venues Roadmender and Picturedrome to ask them to host the festival on their pages, as well as setting up a website and a JustGiving page so that listeners can donate.

Ian added: “It was originally going to be a 24-hour session, but we’ve had that much interest that I thought I’d try and turn it into a festival for the whole weekend.

“It’s all for charity, we just want to give something back and all the money will go to people affected by this virus, whether it’s the workers or the patients.”

While Ian and the rest of the DJs plan to have fun with the festival and bring some entertainment to people’s homes, there is also an important message they want to get out there.

“All we are asking is that people stay at home,” Ian continued.

“We want people not to be out there spreading this around but rather at home enjoying themselves, which is why it’s called the social distancing festival.

“And we felt that it was really important to help the NHS. They are doing an exceptional and fantastic job.

“We have friends that work as doctors and ambulance drivers and they support us when they aren’t working so it’s the least we can do to support them when we aren’t working.”

The festival will be streamed from Friday (April 10) at 9pm until Sunday (April 12) on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and more.

To find out more about the festival, visit the DJs United website and to donate to the cause, visit the JustGiving page.