Hollywoodbets contribute R20 000 to Penny Appeal through Splashy Fen sponsorship.

Hollywoodbets joined East Coast Radio in supporting the Splashy Fen Music Festival, by sponsoring the comedy segments for their online streaming broadcast: Lockdown Live with Splashy Fen. Our contribution towards this comedy segment resulted in a R20 000 donation being made to Penny Appeal South Africa! This charity organisation is currently assisting families that have been impacted by the economic hardships brought about by the crisis by providing food as well as essential hygiene products to help stop the spread of the coronavirus.

“When Hollywoodbets came on board as a sponsor, we thought ‘How cool!’ But the suggestion to support Penny Appeal was even cooler. Penny Appeal have been brilliant with their work on getting sanitisers and personal protective equipment to health workers on the frontlines.”

With this festival which normally takes place over the Easter weekend being postponed to September 2020 due to the global coronavirus pandemic, Splashy Fen became the first South African music festival to take its performances online, providing much-needed entertainment for fans during the national lockdown. The virtual music and lifestyle festival was a huge hit with over 667 000 streams throughout the weekend to enjoy live music, yoga, cooking and exercise classes and more entertainment!
East Coast Radio, a long-time partner of Splashy Fen, provided the comedy segments for the online festival, with talented local comedians as well as ECR’s own stars Darren Maule, Neil Green and Rory Petzer taking the mic. The segments were all performed in front of a web camera with no audience. The performances went off great, despite the challenges of not being able to interact with an audience in the flesh. Maule and Petzer improvised even using an applause app on their phones following hilarious punchlines.
Getting involved as sponsors of the comedy section of this initiative was an easy decision for Hollywoodbets. Having worked with East Coast Radio on numerous projects in 2019 (such as the Cricket and Rugby World Cups and their Toy Story campaign), they were thrilled to be able to partner with ECR again in support of this proudly KZN festival.
On consulting with the station and the comedians, Hollywoodbets suggested that, instead of paying the comedians a fee for their performance, the comedians nominate a charity that was performing important work in battling the coronavirus, and Hollywoodbets would then make a donation on their behalf. The nominated charity chosen was Penny Appeal South Africa.
Neil Green commented on his Facebook page: “We were just trying to make people laugh, now because of Hollywoodbets we are doing some good too!”
Darren Maule added: “When Hollywoodbets came on board as a sponsor, we thought ‘How cool!’ But the suggestion to support Penny Appeal was even cooler. Penny Appeal have been brilliant with their work on getting sanitisers and personal protective equipment to health workers on the frontlines.”
Shanaaz Paruk, the CEO of Penny Appeal SA commented: “This is such a great initiative – well done on bringing in online entertainment during this time, it is much needed. We are thrilled to be nominated as the charity of choice! Undoubtedly the contributions will assist in our current on-going activities amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Devin Heffer, Brand and Communications Manager for Hollywoodbets said, “During these hectic times, we all need a bit of laughter to brighten up our days, and these comedians certainly delivered. It was a privilege to able to give back through these performances to Penny Appeal SA, and assist them in the amazing work they are doing in the battle against the coronavirus.”