Every year, the extended Nacoa volunteering team gets out on to the streets of Bristol to help organise Upfest, Europe’s largest Urban Art Festival. The festival started as a small fundraiser in a local bar in Bristol, and has grown into a national phenomenon, covering over 2 miles of Bristol streets and attracting over 40k people to Bristol each year.
This year, to help raise funds, a fantastic volunteer came along to raise a whopping amount of money for children affected by parental alcohol problems. How did he do it? Cats! Intrigued? Read on….
‘The mouse was glad to be rid of the cats and came home with me!’
I came to Upfest with 55 cats and a mouse.
We sat together on the street.
Upfest visitors gave money to Nacoa in exchange for a cat.
Nacoa got £220.52 – and the cats went to new homes all over the world – England, Wales, Poland, Spain, Italy, France, USA and Australia.
The mouse was glad to be rid of the cats and came home with me!
Each cat is handmade by me – so it’s unique. The bulk of each cat is recycled material – yogurt pot (or coffee shop milk cup) and newspaper – so it’s good for the planet.
As the cats proved so popular at Upfest I thought my next batch of 10 cats might be able to make some more money for Nacoa. So… watch this space, the cats are coming to support the Nacoa helpline ….