Byte Night Scotland

Tonight I’m going to be photographing (and blogging about) Byte Night Scotland . This is a charity event in aid of Action for Children where several teams of IT professionals will be spending the night sleeping under the stars in Holyrood Park. Think of it as “Geeks in sheets”! All of the teams are sponsored to the tune of £2500 to take part so it’s a fantastic effort for Action for Children. There will be teams from such companies as Amazon Development Centre, Ernst & Young, National Australia group, DC Thomson and BSKYB. Keep checking this blog I’ll be adding images as the night progresses. All of the images can be found here. Proceeds from print sales will go to Action for Children.

Time 7:30 pm and it’s check in. To my inexperienced eye it seems there are two types of sleepers; the experienced hillwalker/camper type in “endurance clothing” and those who’ve turned up for a night out – I’m sure I saw a pair of stilettos!

Time 11:00 pm. The revelry continues, Grant Stott compered the night as the fun part progresses. There was a quiz, food, auction, band – all in all a top night out and everyone is in great spirits. We’ll soon be heading outside where it’s dry but pretty cold here in Edinburgh.

Grant did a fantastic job at the auction and I was hugely impressed at how quickly he got the bids up to the silly money. He was tenacious to say the least – you dont get away from this auctioneer by trying not to make contact – he smells a sale.

On a more serious note there was a talk from 4 youngsters who’d benefitted from the work of Action for Children. They told us their sad stories of the problems they’d encountered which led to them to being homeless. Of how they’d benefitted from the charity and what it has meant to their lives. A sobering thought, but that’s why everyone was here and it’s inspiring to hear their tales.

Midnight and teams are heading off to the park, making their way in the dark with just their glow sticks to identify there’s anyone there. Quite an unusual sight seeing little red vertical lights moving through the dark. When the teams arrive they start to bed down using groundsheets, “bivvy” bags and sleeping bags (not “divvy” bags as I said earlier – they’re used in Liverpool). The team from DC Thomson obviously know their ancient history and decide to form what can only be described as some sort of Roman Centurion camp fashioned from umbrellas!