Friends run Spadgerfest sequel to raise money for children of Chesterfield man and hospice which helped with his end of life care

Bands, a burlesque dancer and DJs are joining forces to raise money for the children of a much-loved Chesterfield man who lost his battle against cancer and the hospice which cared for him.
By The Newsroom
Published 29th Aug 2022, 05:30 BST
Lexi Whiteside, Matt Evans, Kelly Sheldon, Timmy Beeton and Nikki Rogers, left to right, at last year's Spadgerfest.Lexi Whiteside, Matt Evans, Kelly Sheldon, Timmy Beeton and Nikki Rogers, left to right, at last year's Spadgerfest.
Lexi Whiteside, Matt Evans, Kelly Sheldon, Timmy Beeton and Nikki Rogers, left to right, at last year's Spadgerfest.

Spadgerfest The Sequel will be hosted at The Spotted Frog, Brampton, on Saturday, September 3, from 1pm to 9pm.

The line-up is Arizona, Escape Plan, The Shambles, Marsden, The Scalettas, Dan Aspinall, James Oakley, Rogue, Angela Taylor, Skatoons, Replaced By Robots, Cerys Ashby, burlesque dancer Krystal Rouge and DJ Timmy, DJ Andy Vik and DJ Clifton.

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The festival will honour the memory of Matt Evans, whose fight against mouth and throat cancer came to an end on New Year’s Day.

Replaced By Robots, Arizona, Escape Plan, Dan, Aspinall, The Scalettas, Angela Taylor (photo by Rachel Taylor) and Marsden, clockwise from top, are among the musicians who will be performing at Spadgerfest The Sequel at The Spotted Frog, Brampton, on September 3, 2022.Replaced By Robots, Arizona, Escape Plan, Dan, Aspinall, The Scalettas, Angela Taylor (photo by Rachel Taylor) and Marsden, clockwise from top, are among the musicians who will be performing at Spadgerfest The Sequel at The Spotted Frog, Brampton, on September 3, 2022.
Replaced By Robots, Arizona, Escape Plan, Dan, Aspinall, The Scalettas, Angela Taylor (photo by Rachel Taylor) and Marsden, clockwise from top, are among the musicians who will be performing at Spadgerfest The Sequel at The Spotted Frog, Brampton, on September 3, 2022.

Money raised at Spadgerfest will be going to his children Cerys and Callum to help with their further education as it did at last year’s inaugural event.

Organiser Kelly Sheldon said: “This year we wanted a presence from Ashgate Hospice who helped with Matt's end of life care. We are donating half of the funds to Ashgate Hospice.

Speaking about how Spadgerfest started, Kelly said: “I was good mates with Matt at school and into our twenties, he would often come along to my gigs with The Shambles on Brampton.

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“Matt submitted a heartbreaking post on Facebook about his battle with cancer. I saw that a lovely lady, Nikki Rogers had started a funding page for his children. I felt that I wanted to do more than pop a few quid over. I really wanted to put on a party/event so Matt had something to look forward to and help raise some money for his kids who would soon be left without their dad to support them financially through uni and college.

"Being a singer and graphic designer I had the tools to put an event together and promote it without having to pay anyone.

"I asked Matt’s permission and he was really excited about it. Matt was a big fan of music and DJs.

Kelly was helped by her husband Chris and Matt’s friends Lexi Whiteside, Timothy Beeton and Nikki Rogers to get Spadgerfest up and running. She said: “Last year was a huge success and everyone had the most amazing day. There were about 1200 people came.”

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