Durty Sunday Social fundraising day in Albert Road, Southsea, offers music, art, entertainment and more

On Sunday, October 23 local artists, performers and DJs come together with independent traders, businesses and venues on Albert Road and Highland Road in Southsea for a day of free events with something for everyone.

In aid of the charity Portsmouth-based charity No More Durty Water, activities include an art fair in the Wedgewood Rooms supported by Crafts in The Tower, where you can browse and buy everything from portraits to plants and chairmaking to candles from 11am-4pm. There will be free face painting and mask making workshops for children, while parents browse the fair.

You’ll find creativity blooming throughout Albert Road all day with exhibitions of local artists at both The Royal Albert and The Corner Collective.

There will be live music in The Kings and The Vaults, while Weekender Records host proceedings in The Fifth Hants.

And there’s spoken word from The Front Room at The Hunter Gatherer from 3.30pm compered by Sam Cox, the Portsmouth poet laureate.

Southsea’s DJ scene is well represented with sets from No More Durty Water honcho George Spence, Fishtank resident Jonty and Mark James from Soul 45 offering chilled and funky grooves in the Edge of The Wedge, the Nothing Ventured Vinyl residents battling it out in the shop and Pork Soda bring their own brand of craziness to Back To The Belgrave.

Event organiser Kelly Jane Hickman said: ‘We wanted to reboot No More Durty Water post-Covid, because we had been unable to hold fundraising events. Crafts in the Tower has also been dormant so we decided to get together to raise funds by putting on an art fair, which The Wedgewood Rooms very kindly agreed to host. I live just off Albert Road and sell my artwork in Dress Code, so I’m aware that footfall isn’t great and people are feeling the pinch. We came up with the idea of asking local traders for a reasonable donation in return for us organising and marketing an event to promote the whole road in the run up to Christmas.

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‘It just escalated and we’ve been delighted with the generosity and community spirit of local traders, venues and creatives and how they’ve got behind the idea. We’ve nearly hit our fundraising target and now we want people to come out, get together and have some fun on the day!’

No More Durty Water was founded by Paul Keeler, who DJed as Monkey P, but died in 2015 aged just 44.

George Spence, chairman of the charity’s trustees added: ‘Paul brought people together with his music and endless enthusiasm for fundraising for the cause. He was gone too soon, but he left us with the drive to keep working to relieve water poverty and keep building connections in the community.

‘The Durty Sunday Social does all of this and more and we’re very excited to see the turnout on the day. We’ve already raised £1,200 towards sources of clean water that will transform lives. I’d like to thank every performer, trader, artist shop and venue for their generous support.’

All activities and venues are free to enter but a small donation would be gratefully received.

For the full event listings nomoredurtywater.org/sundaysocial.