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As part of our Community Footprints programme we organised a Spring Charity Fair earlier this year where our ladies and gentlemen sold food, sweets, clothes and much more in order to raise funds. Recently we invited The Palm Association for an official handing over ceremony. The collected funds amounted to BD690.

The association will use this money to buy supplies for underprivileged Bahraini families and we are looking at more ways to nurture this successful partnership in the future.

Mark Neukomm,
General Manager,
The Ritz-Carlton,  Bahrain Hotel & Spa.

Hard Rock Rising 2014 is a global battle of the bands that started on January 6 where more than 10,000 bands and acts entered with a chance to win a trip to Rome to perform in front of 40,000 people at an ‘undisclosed at this time’ Summer Festival.

Second and third place bands would each receive $10,000 (BD3,771) in cash and $10,000 worth of equipment.

The Boxtones entered the competition and immediately asked their fans for online votes, by downloading their debut single After all is Said and Done for free through Reverbnation and Hard Rock Cafe social media portals.

The Boxtones were invited to perform at the Hard Rock Cafe in Festival City in Dubai on April 9 after a few months of voting and online interaction with fans, in the middle of one of the busiest periods the band has faced since starting.

The band won the regional final that night, and was immediately catapulted to the worldwide stage with 79 other winning bands from participating Hard Rock Cafes all over the world.
The voting for the worldwide stage will run until today – where the 80 bands have to drum up as many votes as they can to secure a place in the top 25.

The top 25 will then be judged by a panel of music industry experts including Steven Van Zandt, producer, songwriter, creator of radio rock show Little Steven’s Underground Garage, founding member of the E Street Band and soon to be Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; singer and hit songwriter Bonnie McKee, known for her hit single American Girl as well as hit songs for Katy Perry, Ke$ha, and Britney Spears; Laura Taylor of Everybody’s Management, who currently works with Laura Marling and Mumford & Sons, Stone, guitarist of Taiwanese band Mayday and Hard Rock Records’ artist relations executive James Buell.

The winning band will be announced on Monday and will then perform in Rome, Italy, on June 12.

Vote now by visiting www.reverbnation.com/contests/3447/artist/372476  
 
Gary Tierney, The Boxtones.