Mandala Café has been fundraising for three weeks so far and have already reached half their target goal.
Adam Heyes, owner of Mandala, said: ‘Its probably been about three weeks since I’ve launched it and I’ve already raised £3,006 which is amazing.’
The initiative aims to raise money for the expansion to the building next door, enabling more room for more customers and gigs for larger bands.
The Café also hosts a variety of gigs, all of which are ticketed and support local bands.
The importance of local businesses for communities reinforces this, with Adam saying ‘social spaces are vital for communities’.
“More recently since we’ve gone through COVID and the lockdowns I know a lot of regulars who come in here and open up with me about their mental health or they lost their jobs or they’ve suffered a little bit. We all dealt with it in a different way but we lost local businesses.”
Adam wants to promote Mandala as a safe space for people to visit and have a chat.
“Communities will benefit from having various coffee shops and places that they can go because for so long they couldn’t go anywhere and they couldn’t meet anybody.”