Well, good people..it happened again..and what a great weekend. This year we added a Friday evening open mic. session...a packed programme form start to finish, and we saw some amazing performances, particularly pleasing was to see those people who had NEVER ever played in public before- some amazing performances for first-timers!Thanks once again to thePublic for hosting the event...great facilities and an unfailingly friendly and supportive staff, everyone was so helpful - the management, sound and tech staff, porters and bar staff - thanks once again.
Headlining the Saturday night was the SENSATIONAL Ben Prestage from the USA, supported by Hollowbelly, and making a welcome return, from France, Tinqui8. Opening the evening was the sensational Dawn O'Brien and the Khalgani dance troupe, dancing to music by talented multi-instumentalist Andy Bole.
An extra evening of music on the Friday evening saw us fill the Ace of Spades Rock and Blues bar at The Barge and Barrel, with a packed programme of Home Grown Music Collective members performing to an appreciative crowd.
On Saturday, we tried a new event - "Build a guitar for £12". This seemed to be the hit of the day, as two teams lead by myself and Ben Moor (Roosterman) guided around 30 people through the process of making an electro-acoustic 3 string guitar. Afterwards I ran a workshop on how to play the guitars that had just been made. We also had workshops from Hollowbelly ("Play The Hollowbelly Way") and Smojo ("Show and Tell")...where people talked about and showed their weird and wonderful musical creations. A massive thank you to all who came and supported the event (particularly to our first overseas audience members, from Belgium and Ireland), and those of you who, above and beyond the call of duty helped out with all the essentials like loading and unloading gear and generally running errands (special mention for Stumblecol who set up and ran the PA for the Friday night and Saturday lunchtime sessions). So, if you missed it this year, watch out for news..because we are already planning next year's event!
Redshaw & Hollowbelly 2010
Smojo demo-ing effects - 2010
Ben Prestage - headlining 2011
Tinqui8 - back again for 2011
After hours jamming
The UK's favorite - Hollowbelly
The gang in 2011
The venue
Khalgani dance troupe..new for 2011
