Feature_Unsung Heroes
JAVIER AJENJO
E Barrie Knight with Roy Edwards
BARRIE KNIGHT
A
specialist in security and artist liaisons, Barrie Knight is a well known figure around the world, with regular clients including Dave Gilmour, Nick Mason, Peter Gabriel, Ronan Keating and events such as Isle of Wight Festival. His efforts throughout lockdown have ensured that tens of thousands of people in London have not gone hungry, following an accidental encounter in the street. “I do an occasional club night called Big Knight Out, so when Covid hit we organised an online event called the Big Knight In, which went out to 11,000 people,” he recalls. “The day after the show, I was walking past a local school, St Paul’s, where my friend Roy Edwards works, and he was there, feeding the children of key workers. I was a free-school-dinners kid myself, so after chatting to Roy, I started making sandwiches for the kids and went along to the school to help out. When I was there, one of the parents thanked me for feeding them and it turned out some of the kids were taking the food home to share with their families because it was the only regular food they were getting.” Determined to help as many families as possible, Knight hit on the idea of a JustGiving page to ask Big Knight In attendees to donate money for the food drive. Within an hour of that going live, it had raised £5,000 (€5,565). In total, supporters raised close to £9,000 (€10,018), but Knight wasn’t finished there. “I asked Joe Lock, the manager of our local Morrisons [supermarket], if we could do some kind of deal with them, and straight off, they gave us six pallets of food, free of charge, to help out.” Knight also leveraged his showbiz connections to solicit support from the likes of Ronan Keating, Peter Gabriel and Annie Lennox. As media coverage spread, Morrisons pledged to match the donations raised by the Big Knight In and, as a result, the initiative was extended to provide a second school and food banks across London with bulk orders of provisions, as well as women’s refuges, soup kitchens and projects supporting the elderly – all of which needed help as the lockdown continued and people lost their jobs. The scheme ended when the schools reopened, post lockdown, with Knight admitting he was overwhelmed by the response, which to date has helped more than 38,000 people across London. “It’s shameful that people in one of the world’s richest cities can be starving: we’re going to do our best to prevent that. So, the Big Knight In is doing a one-off Christmas Special on Saturday 19 December, where every pound raised will again be matched by Morrisons,” he adds. To contribute to that fundraising initiative, visit the YouTube channel of Big Knight Out.
36
iq-mag.net
ach year, Sonorama Ribera Festival, in the Spanish town of Aranda De Duero, dedicates itself to a special humanitarian cause, with a sum of its profits in the recent past donated to organisations such as UNHCR’s air for refugees and the Acción Contra El Hambre NGO, which battles world hunger. When the pandemic meant that the 2020 edition of the event could not go ahead, festival co-ordinator Javier Ajenjo, who was born and raised in the town, decided that there must still be something that the event could do to contribute to the greater good. “Due to Covid-19, the possibility arose of using the venue where the festival is usually held as a field hospital that would help and support the Aranda de Duero hospital,” states Ajenjo. “We got in touch with the health authorities, to put at their disposal all our infrastructure, materials, and the human capacity that we had to start it up.” In less than a week and in co-ordination with various health workers, Ajenjo and a team of 20 from Sonorama, constructed and started running a 1,500m² hospital, with capacity for 200 beds. “A few days later, the hospital started receiving the first patients,” reports Ajenjo. “Despite being somewhat transitory, one of the fundamental things that we wanted during its preparation is that the people who went to work on the premises had a rest space, a dining room, and the best conditions to be able to carry out such hard work.” Ajenjo reveals that had the 2020 edition of Sonorama Ribera gone ahead, plans were already afoot to thank those who had been risking their own health to help the general population. “We were planning a special edition to dedicate to all the people who had worked on the front line fighting for us,” he says. “The idea was to invite 1,000 health workers to enjoy two days of concerts, with all security measures.” Although the high infection rates resulted in Sonorama’s cancellation, Ajenjo tells IQ that alternative plans have been made for those key health workers. “We do not give up, so this Christmas they will have their online festival with some of the best artists in our country performing for them. It will be our way of thanking them.” Looking ahead to 2021, Ajenjo believes that the forthcoming vaccines, allied with everything the Sonorama staff had been learning about in the run up to this year’s festival season, strengthens the probability that the next edition of the festival will go ahead. “With the new vaccines I hope that we will celebrate the festivals with some normality, and that music and concerts will return to our lives,” he says. “We will take all the necessary measures and be attentive to all the advances to achieve our most important challenge, not only that the people who come to Sonorama Ribera know our land, our roast lamb, and our Ribera del Duero wine, but also enjoy our festival safely and happily!”