Members of London's business community will let loose Friday in a battle for musical bragging rights that supports a good cause.
The Battle of the Bands for Wellspring begins at 6pm at The Ceeps on Richmond St. Doors open at 5pm. This year, the competition has been opened up to bands from the entire business community.
"In the past it has been an event that was focused on bands solely from the financial industry," says Joanna Meilleur, event co-organizer. "This year we thought, 'let's open it up to other businesses'. To reflect that we changed the name to Battle of the Bands for Wellspring instead of Battle of the Bay Street Bands."
The event will feature five bands, playing roughly 35 minute sets. The bands will be judged by an American Idol-style panel of judges, which includes Free 98.1's Kate Wright. The winner will be crowned at the end of the night. There will also be a silent auction.
The MC will be Steve Stax of Free 98.1's The Stax Show with Blair and Heather.
Last year, the event raised nearly $85,000 for Wellspring and organizers are optimistic they can hit that number again.
"The money from the event supports the over 20 different programs and services offered at Wellspring," says Meilleur. "All of the services are offered at no cost to individuals and families who are going through cancer. Wellspring does not receive any government or United Way funding so we really do depend on donations from individuals and corporations to keep the doors open."
This year's event is being held in honour of Richard Costley-White, owner of Blackburn Radio, who passed away from cancer in 2015. Meilleur says Costley-White was a great supporter of the event.
"Richard was very involved in the community and in different charitable organizations and we just thought this was a little way to say thank-you to him and his family for everything he had done through the years," says Meilleur.
For more information or tickets visit www.wellspringbattle.ca.