With my colleagues at the musical collective Pineapster, I'd like to thank Gemma Peplow for her review of our Fringe Thursday (Mercury, August 14).

The event has taken four volunteers eight months to plan, so to see people appreciate our event is extremely gratifying. Almost 2,000 people attended, and helped us raise between £6,000 and £8,000 for the charity Loros. We simply cannot start to list the hundreds of people who have lent their time, energy and equipment to help us organise the Fringe Festival, but suffice to say we hope you can help us portray a message of thanks and never ending gratitude to all.

We developed the Summer Sundae Fringe Festival with two main intentions: To demonstrate the city and its superb (and woefully unappreciated) artistic talent to people, especially those from outside the city; and to raise the profile of Loros to a new generation. We thank one person in particular, Richard Haswell, general manager of De Montfort Hall.

In the four years since I conceived the fringe festival idea the event has grown under Pineapster's management to its current day size (2,000 people, nine venues, 40 acts, over 150 performers and, of course, three buses). We would never have reached this position without Richard.

Not only did he allow us to use his festival name, but has striven to support, publicise and encourage the fringe festival. He's helped provide us with the credibility, technical knowledge and understanding to become an event known not only in Leicester but more vitally the national UK music industry.

We can only express our eternal gratitude to Richard and all of the staff at De Montfort Hall for their help to put Leicester back on the map where it belongs

Andy Black, Summer Sundae Fringe Festival director.