Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester concert raises £18 million for victims’ families
By Ross Semple
The families of those killed during a terrorist attack at Ariana Grande’s Manchester concert in May will each receive £250,000, after fundraising efforts led by Ariana Grande’s One Love Manchester event raised a total of £18 million.
The concert, which was broadcast in June, raised money for the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund, which aims to help the families of the 22 people killed during the terror attack at Ariana’s concert at Manchester Arena in May.
The concert at Manchester’s Old Trafford featured performances from Ariana herself, as well as Take That, Pharrell Williams, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, and Niall Horan.
It has been confirmed that an astonishing £18 million ($24.5 million) was raised from the concert, which encouraged donations from viewers.
Sue Murphy, We Love Manchester’s Councillor, said: “Thanks to this we have raised more than £18m and we were conscious that we had to get some of swiftly this to those with immediate needs.
“We have therefore given a around third of the total to the bereaved families and £3.5m to those who were hospitalised after the attack. In total this means we have allocated over half of the existing money already.
“We will now spend some time looking at how we will distribute the rest of the funds. This will be a complex and sensitive process as we will need to assess the long-term impacts of the attack. We will issue an update as soon as we know more.”
Some of the funds raised also went to victims who were hospitalised in the aftermath of the attack. Manchester City Council has also announced a charitable fund to raise money to erect a permanent memorial to those killed during the attack.