Morecambe Music Festival Live Lounge is a runaway success after only five weeks

It has also raised £3,200 for charities and the festival. Morecambe Music Festival organiser Stuart Michaels, who came up with the idea of the Live Lounge and set it up, said: “I can’t believe we are about to start our fifth week! Time has flown by! “We’ve now got 14,000 members and have raised over £3,000. “We have acts performing from all over the world, and people are sending messages of love and support for the acts. “It’s amazing what a small idea can turn into!” Stuart just got a notification on Saturday of the 14,000th member of the live lounge. Stuart said: “We have everything from tribute acts to special music acts. “This Saturday we have got a soul and motown singer followed by a northern soul singer, we’ve got everything going and there is something for everyone. “People can contact us with requests as well. We have young acts every day at 4pm. “Some of the young acts that have performed at 4pm are promoted to the evening time, so they are progressing. “The young acts performing have been from the age of 9 to 18 and it’s sometimes the luck of the draw who you have performing. “The reason they come back to perform is because people are very supportive in the live lounge. “We wanted to raise £5,000 to be split between Morecambe Music Festival, St John’s Hospice and Team Reece and have so far raised £3,200. “We are hoping to get to £5k by the time we have finished. “I thought the live lounge would be good but not like this, I am completely blown away. “It’s situations like this that bring out the best in people. “Originally I was going to give 50% of the money raised to the charities and 50% to Morecambe Music Festival, but if we get to £5,000,I will give each charity £1,500 each and the festival £2,000. “I’ve upped the ante a bit. There are 30 acts a week performing at the moment and the acts are really enjoying it. “I’ve been bombarded by requests because people have seen the success of it. “One of my favourite acts to perform was Geoff Mull who got to the judges chairs in X Factor in 2014. “His performance never dropped below 500 people and it is up to the acts to keep the audience watching as there is often a big influx at the beginning which sometimes tails off. “The live lounge really has gone international, with acts performing from Scotland, Wales, the United States, Germany and Goa. “In times like these there is only so much tv you can watch so why not come and like the group on Facebook, have a look at the schedule and when you want to watch it. “Some people sit and watch it in the garden or hook it up to the television to watch it. “There is nothing better than live music in a time like this. “The first gig I did in my kitchen there were 1,400 people watching and overnight it went up to 15,000 and it was the buzz of knowing that viewers went up from 1,400 to 15,000, that was exhilarating. “When you sing normally, there is not a lot of interaction because people are drinking or talking, but with the live lounge people comment and send requests. “I loved the Michael Jackson impersonator that performed, he did all the dance moves so he was dancing and singing. I enjoyed that. “One guy sang in his garden and the whole street got involved with it. That was brilliant. “I liked the duo who sang from Tennessee, Atlantic Crossing, they were good. It’s kind of surreal that I have set the live lounge up here and people from Tennessee are singing on it. “It’s absolutely crazy. One thing I will say , it is really hard work keeping on top of everything, I’m being inundated with requests, and sometimes people drop out, it’s never ending really. “I made a promise I’d do it every day, seven days a week, 30 acts a week and I’ll keep doing it. It still seems to be fresh.” Stuart is not working at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic so came up with the idea to sell himself for a night’s entertainment in an auction. Stuart said:”I came up with the idea to sell myself in an auction for £10. We had a winner for that auction so we have started a second auction which will be drawn on May 1. “It’s £10 for a number and the number drawn on the day gets me for a full night to entertain people. “This would normally cost £500 and everyone seems to be really happy with the idea.” If you are interested in joining the Morecambe Music Festival Live lounge, simply click on ‘join’ on their Facebook page and you can watch different acts every night. Morecambe Music Festival has launched an official gofund me page to raise money for the festival and two worthy charities, St John’s Hospice and Team Reece. Visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/morecambe-music-festival-live-lounge to donate.