The local 'stay at home' virtual music festival, Rockin the Lockin has raised over £2500 for The Landmark Arts Centre's fundraising appeal.

Hosted by the community business organisation, Teddington Together, the event was streamed on Facebook live and featured 25 acts each performing a 25-minute set from their homes.

Thousands people tuned in to watch at its peak with large numbers tuning in all day to watch the whole 12-hour rockathon.

The Landmark's Chair, Martin Nicholds said " It was so much fun for everybody and our thanks go to Lisa Wyborn from Teddington Together and her team who devised and produced the whole event, Gareth Wax (DJ Bongo) who did an amazing job as MC for the duration and all the wonderful artists who gave their time for free and to everyone who tuned in, listened and generously gave."

Lisa Wyborn of Teddington Together said: "It was an absolute stonker of a day. Where else would you be able to see so much local talent from the comfort of your own home? "

"The energy from all the musicians was phenomenal and I know that they all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

"We've all had to adapt to the current situation and events like Rockin the Lockin not only raises money for great causes like The Landmark, but brings a little bit of happiness into people's lives during these tough times."

Many of the comments made by both artists and the audience focussed on the need to ensure that The Landmark must remain as a venue for musicians and artists and its enormous value to the community for music and the arts.

Chair Martin Nicholds added:"We have now raised over £45,000 since we started the appeal, which is fantastic, and ensures we can survive until October. We will need to keep going on this until we can re-start larger scale events and fairs and I'd estimate we will need another similar amount."

This week, The Landmark celebrates its 25th anniversary and will be marking the occasion with the launch of the #Landmark25Challenge and aims to raise more funds to reach a target of £25K in 25 days.

The challenge is based around being sponsored for doing arts related activities, which The Landmark is famed for, around the numbers 2 and 5. 25 ideas as to how to get involved can be found on www.landmarkartscentre.org