From Mike and Nathan, Leavers 2019

"This was our Leavers’ Project and we wanted to do something that combined our love of music with a desire to raise money for Key Changes, a local Winchester-based charity that uses music therapy to support and help children with special needs. We knew that playing for 24 hours ourselves would be too much, so we wanted to include as many people as possible to make it an event that allowed anyone who wanted to take part to be involved while ensuring that live music was played throughout the 24 hours.

Mr du Plessis helped us by arranging for Junior Strings, Junior Band, Pre-Prep Choir, Junior Commoners and Chamber Choirs as well as Orchestra to play in the Pilgrims’ Hall. During Friday evening the bands from the School of Rock performed, before Simon and Mr Murphy played the guitar and sang for an hour. They were joined by Mr Duncan on the drums before three boys from Winchester College contributed by playing clarinet, cello and piano for an hour. We played through the night with help from Kate Wimbush and George Burnand, before Mr Burton rescued us at 0600 to play the piano. After many contributions from Pilgrims’ boys, teachers and even parents, the time in the Pilgrims’ Hall concluded with Stephen Davies entertaining us on the harmonica, before we walked to the Wolvesey Fields, playing all the way, preceded by our mobile music stands (thank you James and Aleksiy!). We joined Big Band during lunch at the Athletics Finals before finally finishing, absolutely exhausted, at the Alex Halliday Pavillion at 1300.

This was an incredible event to be part of and we would like to thank everyone who was involved in any way, particularly Mr du Plessis for his help planning and organising it (and staying until after midnight), Mr Burden for his support (and staying to listen until 0300!) and all our friends, fellow pupils, teachers and parents who either played or just came to listen and give moral support. The boarders arriving in their dressing gowns at 0700 were amazing as were the parents bringing donuts at 0200!  We are very grateful for all the donations we received and have raised over £2000 for Key Changes. Thank you!

Mike and Nathan