AN AWARENESS group aimed at making Blackburn safer has almost trebled.

Campaigners behind the ‘Make Blackburn Safer’ group say their Facebook membership has risen from 1,127 to 3000 with a number of pubs also joining the campaign since being featured in teh Lancashire Telegraph.

The group, started by relatives of people attacked in the town, say the idea has been met with a huge response from groups who want to take part in a Make Blackburn Safe Festival.

The group is the brainchild of Blackburn DJ Kirk Bullen, also known as DJ Sparky, whose uncle is currently in intensive care with serious head injuries after a violent attack.

Together with Zy Bar landlord James Foley, 32, who was left fighting for his life when attacked on his stag night, and 27-year-old Rachel Baxter, who lost her brother in a park attack a month ago, they decided to raise awareness of the problems with violence on the streets through Facebook.

The group proved to be an immediate hit, with members posting their own views online As well as raising awareness through Facebook, the group’s initial plans were to host a charity night at Zy Bar in aid of brain injury association Headway and other charities on Sunday, August 30.

They now want to extended their plans into a weekend festival to take place on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

James said: “We’ve had so many people say they want to get involved that we are approaching the council to see if we can turn the event into a festival, perhaps closing the area up by the Grapes, but it is early days.

“We have people who want to help us out with hot pot stalls, samba dancing, belly dancing. We have had so many offers we are really busy trying to sort it out.”

Kirk said: “The campaign has took off so well. It’s all thanks to the support of the Telegraph and so may local businesses have got on board as well, offering help with t-shirts and mugs so it is very exciting.

“More pubs have joined forces with the campaign such as Baroque and Barlife and we are planning a meeting with the pubs to see how we can work together. We’ve even had designers offering to do our flyers for free, which makes such a huge difference, considering we just started out as a Facebook Group. Even doorstaff have said they will work on the event day for free to help with safety”.