Fundraisers for the Manchester Passion Play had planned to offer ‘The Full Crucifixion Experience’ for £750 to donors willing to help fund the £50,000 event. Members of the public were going to be hoisted onto a cross outside the city's cathedral, under one of the ideas posted on a crowdfunding website used by the organising committee to raise £8,000. The idea was branded ‘blasphemous’ and dropped when clergy found out, but the Passion play went ahead. It involved local schools, music and drama. Several thousand watched the event on stage and on big screens last Saturday, and it will be televised by the BBC's Songs of Praise.