Homeless sleepout hailed a success as donations top £3.6m
Comment David Mclean
On Saturday night, I was one of 8,000odd other people attending Sleep in the Park. I met the other two-thirds of “Team Lost Edinburgh” ahead of opening time to avoid big queues and ensure we didn’t max out our tolerance to the cold all in the first half-hour.
After a lot of faffing about with an infuriatingly temperamental QR code scanner, we descended into the Gardens to have our bags checked then made our way to Sleep Zone B.
The scale of the operation was wild; West Princes Gardens as I had never seen it before. Each stretch of grass in the Gardens was ropecordoned off with massive tarpaulin ground sheets laid everywhere.
It was the chilliest night of the year with the mercury expected to drop to around -6C. I had prepared for this eventuality as best I could by cladding myself head to toe in Merino wool thermals.
We set up our mats and sleeping bags on a bit of slope that we quickly dubbed “Hillend” on account of the slippery layer of frost covering the tarpaulin, then made our way down to join the queues for food and drink. At 7pm we headed to the concert arena for the night’s entertainment.
Initiated by STV’S Ewen Cameron and hosted by a prickly sharp Rob Brydon, the music got off to a great start with an emotionallydriven number by Sharon Martin & John Watson. A few words from Sir Chris Hoy and a throbbingly-energetic performance by indie outfit Frightened Rabbit completed the first hour.
Sir Bob Geldof hammered home the need to eradicate poverty and homelessness and called the crowd “f****** excellent”. Later I got into my sleeping bag and knew immediately there would be no getting to sleep. It was too cold, too noisy and too damn uncomfortable. How on earth does the average homeless person cope?
When 5:30am arrived, a text message from Social Bite alerted me that we’d done it. Sleeping rough is no joke, and that’s why it must be brought to an end. 0 Thousands took part in the Sleep in the Park event in Princes Street Gardens at the weekend. Top inset, MSP Ben Macpherson, Deputy First Minister John Swinney, Josh Littlejohn, comedian Rob Brydon, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart and Communities Secretary Angela Constance get ready to hand out bacon rolls to fundraisers, above Deputy First Minister John Swinney and Sir Bob Geldof joined thousands of people who slept out in freezing conditions in Edinburgh to raise money to tackle homelessness.
More than 8,000 people braved icy temperatures and spent the night in the city’s Princes Street Gardens as part of “the world’s biggest sleepout”, with donations so far topping £3.6 million.
Stars who performed at the Sleep in the Park event included Liam Gallagher, Deacon Blue, Amy Macdonald and Frightened Rabbit. John Cleese performed a bedtime story while Geldof slept out and addressed the audience.
Event organiser Josh Littlejohn, co-founder of Social Bite, which helps the homeless through cafés, a restaurant and fundraising events, said he was “humbled” by the support.
He added: “Tonight was the night when people from all walks of life came together in Scotland, to stick up for the most vulnerable people among us. This is the night that we collectively gave a voice to the people who have never had one.
“There are 11,000 homeless households in Scotland. When I think about all of the amazing different people sleeping in this garden tonight, the one thing that strikes me about these statistics of homelessness is that they are not insurmountable.
“Scotland is a small enough country, a compassionate enough country and a collaborative enough country, where nobody has to be homeless here. If we put our heads together, we can wipe out homelessness in five years.”
He said the famous names brought “excitement” to the occasion but people had turned up for the cause of tackling homelessness rather than as music fans.
He said: “This concept of sleeping in the cold is such a daunting thing in people’s mind that it trumps Liam Gallagher and it trumps anyone else, but it just helps lend that level of excitement and gets people engaged in the issue.”
Macdonald said: “It seems absolutely ludicrous that in 2017 people are still sleeping out on the streets. It doesn’t seem like it would be that difficult to stop.
“Hopefully the money goes a long way to try and help that.
“It’s just crazy in this day and age, it shouldn’t happen any more and it’s really great that there are charities like Social Bite willing to try and help, and try and make a difference.”
Mr Swinney, Communities Secretary Angela Constance and Housing Minister Kevin Stewart also spent the night in the gardens.