Her first venture into this type of event eight or so years ago started humbly, with Gooden enlisting the services of musician friends to help draw a crowd. “It’s seemed like the obvious thing to do,” she says looking back, and, rather than ask people to spend $90 on a something that only covered a meal and a drink, she chose instead to go with something more accessible and well, fun; a night where punters could pay a small sum ($12 this year if you were wondering) to enjoy an entire day and evening of great live music and guilt free beers. This year’s fundraiser is no exception, featuring the likes of Shortfall, Fast Handsome and G-Pop to name a few.
The Brunswick Hotel was the location of Gooden’s first fundraising venture and remains so to this day: this year marking her seventh fundraiser there. “It’s been a couple of years since I’ve done one,” she admits. “So the fact that they just welcomed me back, donated sausages and a percentage of the bar takings is pretty amazing. The bands are all extremely generous as well; they’re obviously donating all their time and they’re the ones that get the crowd there at the end of the day.”
So what would your money be going towards exactly? BATW was initially established to help children orphaned by the Boxing Day Tsunami and continues to do so. Founder Peter Baines was so affected by the plight of orphans he met while working in the victim identification unit following the Tsunami he was compelled to build a shelter for them. Then he built another; and then a community centre – and now BATW has homes for around Thailand to assist children affected by HIV, sex trafficking and other horrors.
Gooden herself was in turn inspired by Baines in a talk he gave years ago, so inspired in fact, she signed up immediately for a charity ride through Thailand where she got to see firsthand the great work the charity doing – work that didn’t involve religious agendas or paternalistic attitudes, and was working instead towards empowering communities members economically.
Gooden admired how the charity worked in a way with the community that was culturally sensitive, without trying to impose any beliefs or view systems, just respecting the culture and how they’d like to go about helping themselves. BATW also differs from larger non-for-profit aid organisations by providing more of a connected experience for those that volunteer. “It’s still a relatively small organisation, so it’s fortunate people can get involved on the ground.”
Not only is she putting on this great event, Gooden’s again riding across 800km worth of Thailand and aims to have raised $10,000 for the charity by the time the ride rolls around in January. Training hasn’t hit its peak just yet, so she’ll get to enjoy a beverage and soak up the atmosphere come Saturday; and with 15 bands, artists and DJs across two stages, it’s sure to have a real festival feel to it.
“There’s a just a great vibe on the night, it’s a great showcase of local musicians, and a great opportunity to celebrate local Melbourne music whilst supporting a pretty amazing charity at the same time.” If you can’t make it, you can still help the team out at bandsacrossthewater.org.au, where you can donate to the organisation. But that good feeling that comes with donating feels even better with some live music.
BY GARRY WESTMORE
