Announcing Our Official 2023 Charity Partner – Heavy Metal Truants!

We have been itching to give you the low down on our official charity partner! Now that we’ve hammered out all the details (and indulged in a little Iron Maiden, naturally) we are ecstatic to announce that Heavy Metal Truants will be Guildford.Games' official charity partner for 2023!

We know video games are a force for good – whether through educational content, creatively or just through giving a connection to a community of likeminded people. We also know that gaming is sometimes burdened with somewhat of a negative stigma and a trepidation towards allowing children to play at all.  These are just two of the many reasons we wanted to partner with Heavy Metal Truants (FYI other reasons include ‘because they’re really cool’ and aforementioned ‘Maiden).

Heavy Metal Truants - and their mothership, The Truants Foundation - have been working tirelessly for over a decade to use their passion for rock music and the togetherness of their community to raise money for children’s charities. To date, their 275 members have raised nearly 5 million pounds – supporting Childline, The Teenage Cancer Trust, Nordoff Robbins and Save the Children – through participants and fundraisers taking on cycling or running challenges, creatively named to fit with the charity’s ever present rock ‘n’ roll theme.

Alexander Milas - Ex-Editor-in-Chief of Metal Hammer magazine and co-founder of the Heavy Metal Truants – had this to say about the partnership:

 "The relationship between heavy metal and gaming goes right back to the beginning, both as reciprocal sources of inspiration and as ceaselessly innovative art forms that have achieved monumental worldwide influence while gleefully defying judgement from self-anointed arbiters of good taste. It's therefore no surprise to see these two sympathetic and overlapping communities rally to support a brilliant cause, and I am thrilled to see Guildford Games Festival joining forces with us as we begin our second decade, and I'd invite everyone attending physically or virtually to consider joining us this year -- it's for the kids!"

If you’re attending the Guildford.Games Festival next month, you’ll be able to meet some of the Heavy Metal Truants team, who will have a selection of video game merch plus some other things for you to get your hands on in return for a donation. You’ll find them on the show floor (exact location tbc). 
You can sign up to this year’s Heavy Metal Truants challenge, which can be done virtually or - if you’re interested in heading to Download Festival - you can join The Truants on the journey from London to Donnington! For information on all of this and more, head to www.heavymetaltruants.com
We hope this is the beginning of a wonderful partnership with Heavy Metal Truants. There are so many exciting ways we could work together to utilise our love of video games to raise yet more funds for their very worthy causes… but for now our focus is firmly on the G.G Festival, so:

Get your ticket for the G.G Festival, at GLive this February 10th, here. Tickets are free!

If you’re a Guildford developer or business who would like to donate items to HMT at the festival, please email lauran@liquidcrimson.com