A WORCESTER artist has performed a charity gig to raise money for victims of the bush fires in Australia.

During her travels in Melbourne, Poppy Waterman-Smith, from Sidbury, performed a gig which was held at Barton Fink in Thornbury, on January 18. The night raised $2,227 for Gippsland Emergency Relief Fund.

Poppy, aged 26, said: “The fundraiser went brilliantly. The atmosphere was great - we had a ton of local musicians come down and play, they all played for half an hour or so and we all had a jam towards the end.

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“The raffle and various other little things that were going on kept the energy up, we had DJ’s play too so there was lots of dancing and drinking - the kegs were donated.

“Everyone was really happy with the outcome and it would be great to do something like that again.”

Poppy said that many Australian people she has spoken to have been affected by the fires.

She added: “One of the buskers on Bourke Street was telling me how his friend who lives up North has lost all his cattle, his livelihood and had to shoot every single one of his cows and they had all nearly burnt to death. This is happening all up the country, these farmers are losing thousands, if not millions of dollars.

“Many are in fear of their family homes burning down, the ones who grew up outside the big cities in the countryside."