Leeds Students raise over £1100, organising rave in aid of sexual assault victims

A group of students from the University of Leeds have raised over £1100 by organising a rave, with all proceeds going to SARSVL.

SARSVL is the dedicated Rape Crisis Centre for all women and girls in Leeds affected by rape and sexual violence. SARSVL are similar to charities like the Survivors Trust, which is the single biggest umbrella agency in this field across the UK.

Dan Griffiths, Leon Smith, Henry Bennett and Billy Kennedy (branding themselves as ‘The Kooky Ken’) have arranged a dance event for the 3^rd of March.

With all of the group DJing, those attending have been promised dance music ranging from Techno and house to Garage and Disco.

Asked about the origins of the idea and the group, Dan said:

“The kooky ken formed through a mutual love for electronic dance music. We talked about starting our own music collective in lockdown, but we couldn’t even have 3 people in our room without fear of being hunted by security!”

The collective came from the nickname given to the boys’ house in Headingley.

“We always wanted to call our house the kooky ken and throw amazing parties – putting on events in clubs just seemed like a natural progression for us”.

With the proceeds going towards such a serious cause, I took the time to ask Dan what led the group to support their chosen charity.

“From the very start of uni we noticed that sexual assault was a large problem and we wanted to make a difference”

“We were driven to choose our charity owing to the shocking number of stories we hear relating to sexual assault in Leeds in the student community”

“Put it this way, if I had a daughter – I’d be frightened to send her to uni here. It’s just not acceptable.”

“By putting this event on in support of these excellent and hardworking charities we hope to vilify and eradicate the dangers which are so prevalent in our community”.

Aside from the causes the event is in aid of, the night itself promises some stellar dance music – with all paper and electronic tickets selling out.

“The support has been overwhelming – tickets have now sold out with over a week to go, and the gofundme page for ort charities has already surpassed our initial target”

The boys have managed to raise £1126 at the time of writing and look set to raise a lot more by the time the event happens.

I asked them to describe the event in three words for me:

“Groovy as hell.”

“This is only the beginning for us, Expect our parties to get cooler, crazier and downright boogielicious! We want to support the underground music scene across the UK – we’ve got you covered for everything”

“We owe a big thanks to all our friends who have supported and shared the event and can’t wait to see everyone on the dance floor!”

And for anyone unlucky enough to miss out on a ticket for the event, the boys told them not to worry…

“Expect some more exciting news from us soon, 28/4/22 save the date”.

For more information about the group and their future plans be sure to follow @thekookyken on Instagram.