Annual charity event Rockin' 4 The Homeless expands in both size and prestige this year, moving outdoors for the first time and adding a celebrity guitar auction to its programme.
Rockin' 4 The Homeless is a fundraiser benefitting the work of The Breakfast Club, a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation providing support and services for homeless people in the Redcliffe Peninsula region in Queensland.
This year, Rockin' 4 The Homeless will hold its inaugural gala dinner and celebrity guitar auction, or 'rocktion', as R4TH's new Special Events Co-ordinator Jen Haggar prefers to call it. “We do like a good pun,” Jen laughs.
“We’re offering a two-course dinner, it’s a three-hour drinks package, we’re going to have acoustic sets from Sarah McLeod and Dave Faulkner [who also host the event] and then of course our big event is the guitar 'rocktion'.”
The gala dinner and 'rocktion' have been the initiative of Jen, who recently joined the R4TH team and brings with her a wealth of experience in both event management and social services.
“I've been attending Rockin' 4 The Homeless since it started, which I think was six years ago, and then just coincidentally Dan [Nebe, organiser] moved in next to me and we got chatting, and I said I'd love to be involved with the event. I've supported both the event and The Breakfast Club in other ways over the years, so this seemed like a good fit for me,” she says.
“My background is in psychology and I work for the Department Of Human Services now, so a lot of my role is dealing with the most vulnerable people in our community and seeing how we can adjust the way we do things here to give better outcomes.”
With her background and dedication, Jen comes equipped with two vital prerequisites: passion and experience. “With passion and experience you can pull pretty much anything together, can’t you?” she says.
And what Jen has pulled together with the guitar 'rocktion' is nothing short of spectacular, with guitars from Joe Satriani, Tash Sultana, Pennywise, Robert Cray, You Am I and more going under the hammer.
“We do think the Joe Satriani and Tash Sultana ones are going to be particularly popular, and Pennywise too, they have their own strong following so it will be interesting to see how it all plays out on the night,” Jen says.
Rockin' 4 The Homeless this year features performances from artists such as You Am I, The Superjesus, Diana Anaid, Team Utopia and many more, all lending their support to the cause.
This year the event also takes on a mini-festival vibe, moving outdoor and adding a new location on the Gold Coast. “It will be fun,” Jen says of the dinner and 'rocktion'.
“It will be a bit different to what we’ve done before, so probably targeting a slightly different audience to our normal event. Rockin’ 4 The Homeless is getting bigger every year; we’re expanding to some different locations this year, so we’re always looking for new ideas and different ways to raise money for our causes.”
Rockin' 4 The Homeless gala dinner and guitar rocktion takes place at Woolly Mammoth (Brisbane) 29 August - there will also be a general admission concert happening upstairs (with all proceeds going to The Breakfast Club) with Sarah McLeod doing a set alongside a couple of local bands; the concerts headlined by You Am I and The Superjesus are at Southport RSL (Gold Coast) 30 August and Picnic Hill (Redcliffe) 31 August.
