Annually for the last 10 years, 40 or so Heavy Metal Truant charity cycle riders and Metal fans have unselfishly spent two and a half days riding the hilly, and often wet, 190 miles from Alexandra Palace London to Download, arriving at the very start of the first festival day at Download, to raise funds for children’s charities, raising well over a million pounds to date.
We have appropriately enlisted them to be the main charity for this auction – the Truants pass on all the proceeds equally between four well known children and young people's charities – Teenage Cancer Trust, Nordoff & Robbins Music Therapy, Childline/NSPCC and Save The Children.
The Heavy Metal Truants is part of the larger Truants Foundation, now a registered UK Charity No 1191441.
The Truants were formed in 2010 by Iron Maiden Manager- Rod Smallwood for a charity bike ride to Egypt where 42 riders raised £236,688 for Nordoff Robbins and ChildLine – Teenage Cancer Trust was added the following year with a ride in Cuba.
With further rides every 18 months or so in Morocco, Cambodia, Mexico, India, Vietnam, Scotland, Argentina, along with funds raised from a variety of sporting based charity dinners and various auctions, the Truants have now raised over £5M.
The Heavy Metal Truants were born on the Morocco Ride when Rod enlisted the support of the then editor of Metal Hammer Alexander Milas to help him get the annual ride London to Download on the road.
Liquid Crimson are an award-winning video production house and social media agency. Their roots are deeply embedded in the UK Video Games scene – having worked with big names such as EA/Criterion, Supermassive Games, Xbox, and Sony, as well as many others from within and outside the UK. They also co-run the Guildford Games Festival, which chose HMT as their official charity partner 2023/24.
Their love for heavy metal and live music is what brought them and The Heavy Metal Truants together, and since coming on board they have supported them with video content and social media management.
