On 2 March 2023, students and locals alike gathered in the Fulford Arms, Fulford Road, for a night of music and dancing at Amnesty Society’s annual event: Jamnesty. Tickets were £6 on the door and all money raised from ticket sales was to be split equally between Amnesty International and local Ukrainian charity Sunflowers in York.
Hannah, Amnesty Society’s Fundraising and Events officer, opened the evening with a small speech introducing the student bands that were to perform and thanking everyone for coming. The first set was a performance from Slice!, a solo artist based in York and London. Writing and producing their own music since 14, Slice! opened the night off nicely with their techno beats. This was only Slice!’s second performance live but they did well at keeping crowds engaged in their music.
Once Slice! had finished and after a short interval, Hannah returned to the stage to introduce the next act and also invite Vice President Tasha to explain who the money was being donated to. Tasha explained that half would go to Amnesty International, and the other half would be donated to Sunflowers in York.
According to their website, Sunflowers in York is a local Ukrainian charity who help “Ukrainian refugee children and families to settle and thrive in York by providing emotional health and well-being activities and support.” The charity splits their resources between running a Sunflower Kids Club for Ukrainian refugee children to give them a safe space to socialise and enhance their wellbeing, providing in-school support for Ukrainian children in both group and one-to-one sessions, supporting English hosts on how best to accommodate Ukrainian refugee families, and offering interpreters to Ukrainians during group and individual sessions in which they may need a translator. To find out more about Sunflowers in York, head to their website.
The next act to perform at Jamnesty was PH7, a indie-rock style band who have written songs together since their first year of university. The group certainly got the crowd dancing, with both covers and their own songs. Hannah then closed the evening with a plethora of thank yous to the committee, the Fulford Arms and all student musicians who had performed for Jamnesty. Whilst Amnesty Society have not released the amount raised by the event yet, the packed Fulford Arms is definitely a testament to the popularity of Jamnesty. If you would like to keep up to date on how much was raised by Jamnesty and the process of donation, follow the Society’s Instagram page @uyamnesty.
The Vice President of Amnesty Society, Tasha, commented on the success of the evening: “it was lovely to see so many people coming together to enjoy music and support a local charity and bring a community together. Sunflowers in York do some amazing work and we’re really excited to be able to donate half of what is raised tonight to them.”
The event did not end there, with an afterparty taking place at Revolution and then Flares until the early hours of the morning.
