Metallica donate £40,000 to Manchester homeless charity ahead of Etihad Stadium show
- Written by Rhian Sugden
- Last updated 4 years ago
- Charity, City of Manchester
Heavy metal legends Metallica handed over a whopping £40,000 to Northern Quarter charity Coffee4Craig on Tuesday night before their sold-out gig in Manchester.
Metallica’s charity foundation All Within My Hands shared a picture of the band handing over the cheque to Coffee4Craig with the message: “Thank you to all the fans attending #MetInManchester tonight for joining @metallica in supporting @coffee4craig, as they support vulnerable people in their community.”
Chief executive of Coffee4Craig Hendrix Lancaster said the charity found out that Metallica wanted to support them a few weeks previously but had no idea about the donation until they received it.
“We didn’t want to get our hopes up, and we certainly didn’t expect a cheque of that amount,” he said.
Metallica support a charity in each city they perform. It is believed that a member of the production team saw Coffee4Craig’s recent appearance on BBC’s Watchdog about food waste.
Volunteers at Coffee4Craig were given the chance to meet the band and got complimentary tickets to attend the concert, and it was then that they were presented with the cheque.
The musicians hugged the volunteers and everyone got “quite emotional” said Mr Lancaster. “We were all fighting back tears.”
“The donation blew us away – not only the financial donation but all the leftover food from the backstage catering went to our out-of-hours drop in. The band were very humble and really interested in what we do and who Craig was.”
Coffee4Craig helps vulnerable people “regain dignity and well-being”.
It was founded by Mr Lancaster and his wife Risha in memory of her brother Craig White who died while sleeping rough on the streets of Manchester.
It costs the charity around £2,000 a week to stay open so the donation from Metallica will keep the charity going for the next 12 months worry-free.
Meanwhile, Metallica’s WorldWired tour is continuing tonight at Twickenham Stadium in London before moving on to Berlin, Sweden and Denmark next month.
Find out more about Coffee4Craig here.
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