Hello. And welcome to my many new followers — largely here thanks to The Mail/You magazine republishing my previous post — Stardust, Golden — which marked the six month *semi-versary* of the sudden accidental death of my 21 year-old son, Jackson.
Several weeks on and the Mail article has now received hundreds of thousands of online views.
I had thought there might be a knock-on effect; an uptick in sales for the one-day music festival I’ve curated in Jackson’s memory, JackoFest, which I also wrote about. It’s being held at the (modernist masterpiece) de la Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea on July 27 — the day before what would have been Jackson’s 22nd birthday — with all profits going to two small charities supporting bereaved parents and siblings.
However, while people seem to be keen to read about my grief there was no apparent crossover. So, with two months still to go, last week I launched a Crowdfunder — which took off immediately. It turns out that many people — a majority of whom knew they couldn’t attend — were very happy to help us get *JackoFest* over the line.
After an extraordinarily generous £800 single donation by someone who chose to remain publicly anonymous, the target was met on Thursday night — just 2.5 days since we launched on Tuesday.
I had been reluctant to ask for money — or indeed any help at all, to be frank — in order to get JackoFest over the line. These are tough times financially for many and there’s a lot going on in the world so indulging the borderline-obsessive coping strategy of a recently bereaved mother was (I thought) going to be at the top of very few people’s *To Do* lists. Meeting our initial target this fast has been incredibly moving.
I can’t effect change in the middle east, or Ukraine, or even feel particularly confident about electing a functioning (much less heroic) government in July… but I CAN do THIS. For Jackson, for his brother, for all their friends, and mine — and indeed anybody else who may want to join us. And that means everything to me.
Thank you, then, to all those donors who recognised this. From my closest friends, Knights of the Realm and the household names who’ve donated three figure sums to the teenagers donating a fiver… all your love and generosity means the world to me— not only personally but on a practical level, too. It ensures this lovingly hand-crafted event can go ahead as originally envisioned.
With weeks still to go before the Crowdfunder finishes, however, we’re still going! Quite simply, the more we raise the more we can do: provide riders for our lovely artists, a prettier stage, maybe some merch… not to mention the possibility of generating profit to pass on to our charity partners. At the moment we’re just covering our costs.
So if you’d like to be involved, the link’s below; on the Crowdfunder page I explain more about how the idea for the festival came about. Alternatively, you could just buy tickets for the event itself — the Box Office link is below. And of course if you can’t make it yourself — it’s on the south coast, after all, on a very busy summer weekend — you could always pass them on to somebody who can. The musical line-up is sufficiently diverse that there is something for (nearly) everybody… though there’s no Thrash Metal.
If you do choose to be involved, a heartfelt thank you from me—on behalf of Jackson, his brother Rider, the de la Warr team and all our fabulous artists and friends. It’s going to be a beautiful day… #teamjackofest
Follow us on Instagram @jackofest2024
de la Warr Pavilion Box Office
My beautiful boy, Jackson Peacock, living his best life. Summer 2022