VIDEO: Bury St Edmunds pub hosts music and dancing for charity

A Bury St Edmunds pub has hosted a day of music and dancing to help raise funds for charity.

Stage choir the Voice Squad, Green Dragon Morris, a string quartet and a local band all performed at Oakes Barn, in St Andrew’s Street South, yesterday.

The pub, run by Heather Warren and Susan Wilde, staged the events to raise money for the Mayor of St Edmundsbury’s four chosen charities; the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH), the Rainbow Ward at West Suffolk Hospital, the Samaritans and the Bury St Edmunds Women’s Aid Centre.

More than £740 was raised through raffle ticket sales and an auction, where lots ranged from bottles of champagne to Mildenhall speedway tickets.

Speaking yesterday, the mayor, Cllr Patrick Chung, said: “It’s been lovely. I’d like to say thank you to everyone who has come to support it and especially Heather and Susan for organising it. I’m having fun and I hope it’ll raise a bit of money for good causes.”

Mrs Warren said: “We wanted to support St George’s Day and we decided to do it with a day of music and dance, and it’s obviously all for the mayor’s charities.

“We’ve had a great turn out and people have had a lot of fun. There’s been a nice variety of activities and a lot of people have given their time for free.”

Members of Green Dragon Morris will be performing at a range of festivals over the coming months, as well as at the Suffolk Show and around Bury town centre on September 18 when they will celebrate the Morris Day of Dance.

“It’s nice keeping old traditions alive,” said morris dancer Sam Bye.

To find out more about the group, which has been running since 1993, visit www.greendragonmorris.org