With just under a month until the show, our wonderful marketing director, Matthew, reflects on everything GCFS 2024/25 has achieved so far.
With only a month left to go until the show, we thought it would be good to take a look back and recognise all the hard work that has been put into the campaign so far.
After just a few weeks of working together as a committee in late August we were excited to announce that the GCFS2025 campaign would be supporting the incredible charity, Children’s Hospices Across Scotland (CHAS). CHAS are central to our mission at GCFS with all money raised going towards the hard work they do to support children and their families with life-shortening illnesses.
To kick off our support for CHAS, a number of committee members and friends of GCFS hiked twenty miles across Edinburgh as part of the Kiltwalk. We managed to raise over one and a half thousand pounds which was an incredible start to our fundraising campaign!
Freshers week came in hot with a huge campaign to push our name further out there and to talk to people interested in joining the team as models and brand ambassadors. After over one hundred model castings, the creative team brought twenty six models onto the team who have put so much effort into the campaign this year. At the same time we brought on fifteen brand ambassadors who have helped us immensely by encouraging people to come along to our events and been invaluable to the events team. Thank you to everyone who applied or came along to castings - your enthusiasm was truly inspiring and we hope that many of you will apply again next year!
At the end of October the charity team put on our first ever Mission Impossible which saw teams race across the West End to complete different challenges with the chance of winning a number of incredible prizes donated by local businesses. Despite the rain it is safe to say a lot of fun was had and we can’t wait to see what the charity team do with Mission Impossible next year.
Mission Impossible, Record Factory
Following on from the successful Pinot and Paint event in Freshers Week, the events team’s next big challenge was our Theme Reveal Party. Whilst being a yearly occurrence since our inception, the events team had massive plans to take the launch party to the next level. Held in BAaD in the Barrowlands the party was headlined by incredible DJ’s including Jamie Gunn, Charlie Preston, Deja, Patrice and SAnty and Nihasa from Glasgow University Electronic Music Society (GUEMS). We can’t say how proud we are of the events team and all the work they did for Theme Reveal which raised thousands of pounds and really did our theme, Essence, justice.
ESSENCE Theme Reveal, Barras Art and Design
The charity team were back at fundraising in no time and launched another new endeavour known as Focus on Fundraising Week. The team worked hard to put on a bake sale, a bauble painting event at The Record Factory, and the social media campaigns ‘Chats With CHAS’ and ‘Fundraising with GCFS’. The week was finished in collaboration with the basketball team at Glasgow University who helped us host a tournament open to all. Thanks to everyone who took part - professional or beginner!
Whilst all this was going on, the events team were hard at work collaborating with GUEMS to bring you House Party at Berkeley Suite. After a lot of effort across the entire committee we are proud to say that House Party sold out and raised over two thousand pounds for CHAS. We can’t thank GUEMS enough for how much time and effort they put into the night and the amazing DJs who played for us.
Just earlier this month the events team worked hard alongside FemmeDM, a collective of female and non-binary DJs in and around Glasgow. Alongside FemmeDM, GCFS brought The Berkeley Suite alive with Transcend which was an exploration of the diverse musical history of the Glasgow club scene. Raising over a thousand pounds and selling out the venue, this was an incredible night filled with music, fun and joy.
Alongside the events, social media campaigns, preparation for the show and the work of the sponsorship and charity teams, the creative team have been busy at work putting together a number of incredible editorial shoots that can be seen on our instagram. These shoots explore the different aspects to our key theme of essence and we’d really recommend you check them out.
Before we wrap up here, we’d also like to give a massive thanks to our sponsor Selective Personnel. Selective Personnel have been such a massive help and been involved in the campaign from the beginning. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do as much as we have and we can’t thank them enough.
The GCFS2025 campaign has been incredible so far and, for being a voluntary society, so much time and effort has been put into the campaign to bring students an amazing outlet to have fun and be creative alongside supporting a much-needed charity. Thousands of people have influenced, experienced and supported the campaign so far and we can’t wait to see you all at our show on March the 1st at the Old Fruitmarket. Tickets are running low, so buy yourself one while you still can here. See you then!