Covstock started in 2003 when Wayne Joesbury was told about a little girl by the name of Bethany Keenan, the daughter of family friends. Bethany had contracted a rare form of childhood cancer called Neuroblastoma, which affects 1 in 100 children in the UK. Certain essential treatments for this illness are not available here in Britain and it is sometimes necessary for sufferers to travel to the US for life saving medical care. The treatment, travel etc make this a very expensive necessity and Bethany’s family are by no means blessed with that kind of wealth.

Wayne approached local music promoter John Oliver for help in putting together a live music event that would raise some much needed cash to assist Bethany’s fight for life, and with the help of many others who were only too willing to help, the first event was held at the small but very popular music venue, The Beer Engine in Gosford St Coventry. The event was such a roaring success, raising around £1500, that it was decided to organise another for the following year at a larger venue, The Jailhouse in Much Park St. The excitement surrounding the event inspired the local music crowd to dub the event “Covstock”. Again, the event was a huge success, raising pretty much the same as the year before.

The next Covstock was postponed due to the tragic tsunami disaster, for which an event had been put together as a matter of urgency by Richard Elms at Coventry’s Colosseum. However, Covstock 3 went ahead in February 2006 at The Golden Cross in Hay Lane and this time it was bigger and better than ever! For the first time we were able to split the event in two, staging singer/songwriters downstairs and bands upstairs - 38 acts in all, throughout the day. As always, we were raising money for little Bethany Keenan, but this time we decided to include a ‘guest charity’ which was The Andreya Hope Emery Fund, raising money for Walsgrave Hospital’s Special Care Baby Unit, and split the money. Publicity had been taken to a completely new level over the 3 months it took to organise CS3 and by 7pm the venue was full to capacity, with a queue stretching down Hay Lane, waiting to get in - the first time any of us had seen such a phenomenon for unsigned bands at a small local venue, either before or since!

Between corporate donations, merchandise sales and bucket collections, we raised nearly £4500 on the day.

Covstock has grown more and more successful from its humble beginnings and this success has played it’s part this year in inspiring new promoters to do their bit for good causes by creating their own events, based directly on our Covstock model and taking from our experience in creating this great event. There can be no greater compliment.

We hope that 2008 will be Covstock’s greatest year yet and that we can raise more valuable cash for The Bethany Keenan Fund and The Princess Royal Trust For Carers.
It is our aim to create something long lasting for our community and to embark on more projects that will make our city a better place to be.

We hope to see you there and we hope you have a good time.

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