WeGotTickets And War Child Get In The Christmas Spirit

This Christmas War Child are joining forces with the UK’s leading independent ticket agency WeGotTickets to help raise much needed money to help protect children from the brutal effects of war and its consequences.Working in areas such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Uganda and D.R. Congo, War Child are among the few organisations out on the ground supporting the most vulnerable children, those who too often are forgotten about in the aftermath of conflict.From December 1st WeGotTickets will be hosting a War Child advent calendar on their home page. Every day this will link through to new War Child content, from videos of previous War Child concerts and events through to information about the charity’s history and ongoing work.Furthermore throughout December WeGotTickets customers will be able to make an additional donation to the charity whenever they purchase a ticket for any event. On Christmas day itself WeGotTickets have pledged to donate 100% of all booking fees to the charity. A similar initiative saw WeGotTickets customers donate nearly £5000 towards Oxjam in October.Steven Endersby, WeGotTickets Project Coordinator said, "War Child's history of using music to raise funds and highlight the effects of war on children makes them the perfect charity for us to be working with, and we're delighted to be able to offer our support.We've worked closely with the charity on a couple of events this year and so it seemed natural to make a donation at Christmas to help them continue the great work they do. As well as our own donation we decided to run a fund raising campaign in the run up to Christmas to give our customers the chance to make their own contribution and to help raise awareness of the fantastic support War Child offers children in war torn areas."-    End –NOTES FOR EDITORSAbout WeGotTicketsWeGotTickets is the leading ticketing agency in the UK for small to medium sized venues and promoters and currently works with over 3000 such organisations.WeGotTickets has made it possible for promoters of all manner of events to benefit from advance ticket sales and now sells more than 500,000 tickets a year for a wide range of events; from art events and underground restaurants, to traditional live music shows. Indeed to cater for the growing demand for comedy tickets the company recently launched WeGotComedy.com, the UK’s only dedicated online ticket portal for comedy events.Since its launch WeGotTickets has consistently pushed for innovation, transparency and best practice across the ticketing industry, with many of the company’s ideas becoming standard industry practice.The company’s 10% maximum ticket commission rate has helped to lower fees across the business, whilst its pioneering paperless ticketing system has been a major factor in reducing the live music industry’s carbon footprint. The company has also been involved in numerous initiatives to help develop the grassroots live music industry and in 2009 launched an online forum where the company’s clients can network and share resources and knowledge in private.Over the years WeGotTickets has been proud to work on a number of special campaigns with charities such as Oxjam, Childline and Warchild, and regularly donates a percentage of their booking fees back to these groups. In 2009 the company launched a unique feature allowing ticket buyers to quickly and easily make a donation to a featured charity whilst purchasing tickets.Started in Oxford in the early noughties, the company was set up as a result of the founders being unable to sell advance tickets for one of their concerts at a venue that lacked a box office. Originally selling through their music merchandise website www.OxfordMusic.net, the WeGotTickets online box office was fully launched in 2002, selling tickets for The Zodiac (now O2 Academy) in Oxford and other venues.www.wegottickets.com About War ChildWar Child is a small international charity that protects children from the brutal effects of war and its consequences. We currently work in Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq and Uganda.We're on the ground - supporting the most vulnerable children that are too often forgotten in the aftermath of conflict. These include:•    Former child soldiers•    Children living on the streets•    Children put in prison•    Girls at risk of rape or violenceWe may be a small charity but we’ve got big ambitions. Our staff are living and working in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones helping thousands of kids to rebuild their lives.By working with local partners, we provide a number of services for children including:•    Rebuilding schools destroyed by war and getting children back into education•    Separating children from adult detainees in prison and providing legal aid•    Reintegrating child soldiers with their families•    Getting children off the streets after war has forced them to leave home•    Counselling to help children cope with the effects of war•    Vocational and professional training which gives them future opportunities•    Ensuring children get access to food•    Changing harmful attitudes in the community towards childrenWar Child has an established, proud and unique relationship with music, dating back to the ‘Help!’ album in 1995. War Child has since released an award-winning catalogue of five albums, winning gongs at The MOBOs, The Brit Awards, The Q Awards, The NME Awards and the only compilation up for the Mercury Music Prize.Our music supporters include Sir Paul McCartney, David Bowie, Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, Oasis, Lily Allen, Stevie Wonder and Elbow. The support of these amazing artists has helped raise over £4m for War Child’s work.www.warchild.org.uk