Bradford District Credit Union’s ‘Buy Nowt’ Festival goes virtual

Tuesday 16 January 2024

Bradford residents were invited to discover how much fun they can have without spending a penny. ‘Buy Nowt’ returned for its fourth year as it puts a Yorkshire twist on the international Buy Nothing Day which campaigns against poverty caused by consumer debt and excess.

This year’s physical festival has had to be cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions, however over 90 attendees joined the virtual event to hear discussions focusing on tackling financial inequality, promoting savings habit  with International Perspectives from US credit union leaders and also a collaboration and partnership presentation by Bradford’s Anti-Poverty Events Group.

Welcoming attendees to the event, Councillor Hinchcliffe, leader of Bradford Council said: “Bradford is a world leader in creative collaboration and partnership, in financial inclusion and anti-poverty work that has helped our diverse cultures work together through partnerships. The Anti-Poverty Events Group was shortlisted for the Service Excellence Awards and is a great example of that innovative and collaborative spirit in Bradford and it’s great to see ‘Buy Nowt’ providing international stories of communities working together from all over the world.”

One of the speakers, Hank Hubbard, CEO of a Credit Union in Detroit USA, said: “It’s great to be part of an international webinar exploring solutions to financial exclusion. Detroit has a large African American population who are marginalised by the mainstream banks and taken advantage of by predatory lenders so our Credit Union is vital to our community.”

Talking about the ‘Buy Nowt’ success in previous years, Ian added: “Past participants have said how much they appreciated attending. Some people feel generally isolated knowing they can’t spend on Black Friday so the opportunity with our event is helping people feel good about themselves. This is a unique project and has not been done anywhere else in the country.”