Tramlines Sheffield 2024: Festival organisers announce over £200,000 raised for local causes since 2018

The Tramlines Festival has raised over £200,000 for local Sheffield causes since 2018, the associated charity, The Tramlines Trust, has announced.

£57,600 was raised during Tramlines in 2023, with the charity announcing the majority of the money raised will go to local causes based in Hillsborough.

Tramlines Operations Director, Timm Cleasby, said: "To see the full range of people and projects supported in 2023 is fantastic. It’s wonderful to see all the organisations that are benefitting and how they’re using the funding.

"Our city is full of people and organisations doing great things in the creative industries and it's a privilege to support their activities."

Some of the grant highlights from Hillsborough include a £5k donation to Hillsborough Together which will help fund the Christmas lights event in Hillsborough Town Centre. There’s support for the Hillsborough Hornet’s Disability FC who need a bigger pitch plus training for more volunteers; and RivelinCo, which is close to the festival site in the famous Rivelin Valley. Further afield, Peaks of Colour, provides monthly hikes and ‘walkshops’ for people of colour in Sheffield and the Peak District, whilst Odd Child Productions, created by local artist and Tramlines regular Danae Wellington, aims to ensure that, ‘every ethnically marginalised child and young person is proud of their heritage and culture’, and will use funds from Tramlines to deliver poetry and performance-based workshops in partnership with Mercia Learning Trust. 

The Leadmill’s Studio Orchestra is also being funded by Tramlines. Rose Wilcox, Head of Programming said: "We are absolutely thrilled that the Tramlines Trust is helping to fund 'Studio Orchestra', a project that brings young people together who would never normally meet, to collaborate and develop original pieces of music that cross genres of classical with commercial sounds of rap, drill, spoken word, garage, indie music and more."

The full list of Tramlines Trust beneficiaries includes: A Mind Apart - Adira - Bright Iris CIC - Cartoon Drawing Club CIC - Depaul UK - Disability Sheffield Centre for Independent Living - GRASS Collective - Grow - Hillsborough Hornets Disability FC - Hillsborough Together - Hillsborough Trinity Methodist Church - Holme Lane Community Garden - Hope Community Foundation - Odd Child Productions - Patrick Amber - Pattern and Push CIC - Peaks of Colour - Reach Out Childcare Services LTD - RivelinCo - S6 Murals -  S12 Community Pantry - Sheffield Mind - Sheffield Music Academy - Sheffield Vulcans - The Leadmill LTD - Theatre Deli Sheffield.

This news from Tramlines comes after a controversial festival earlier this year, which left some Hillsborough residents upset by the condition that Hillsborough Park was left in in July. Poor weather during the event resulted in major damage to the park.

Large parts of the park were fenced off for reseeding and repair work over the school summer holidays and into the autumn.

Recently, Sheffield City Councillor Richard Williams, chair of the communities, parks and leisure committee, said: “We know how important Hillsborough Park is to residents, which is why we have been working with Tramlines to restore the park to its usual high quality and return it for community use following this year’s Tramlines Music Festival.

“I am really pleased to see that the majority of the fence lines have now come down and most of the park is now open once again for public use."