Metal teams up with Leigh Folk Festival

June 13, 2018 by Jessica

Metal teams up with the Leigh Folk Festival for an evening of young songwriters and youth musicians at Chalkwell Hall.

As part of this year’s Leigh Folk Festival, Metal will throw its doors open on Friday 22 June, 6pm – 9pm, to showcase an evening of folk and jazz in both traditional and contemporary forms, performed by young local singer-songwriters and musicians.

Over the past year Metal has run two week-long song-writing courses in conjunction with local music group SoSlam encouraging young emerging songwriters and musicians to develop their skills and knowledge around writing songs. As part of the Leigh Folk Festival they are inviting these young people to show-case their latest work. Performers will include: Anna-Marie Childs, Genevieve Johnson, Lottie Mollica, Niamh O’Shea, Bavard, Leo C and Scarlett Taylor.

Metal has also supported a programme by the National Youth Jazz Collective, where young jazz enthusiasts meet like-minded musicians to develop their skills, passion and experience as jazz players. Young musicians from Southend have taken part in composition and improvisation classes at Chalkwell Hall. On Friday 22nd of June they will join forces with the SoSlam singer-songwriters and perform music demonstrating what they have learnt over the year. Both SoSlam participants and the National Youth Jazz Collective are looking forwards to the experience of playing to a ‘live’ audience.

Danielle Morgan of the Leigh Folk Festival said, ‘As we look ahead to Leigh Folk Festival 2018, there are so many fantastic acts to get excited about. With Metal consistently supporting local community based arts projects, we hope this will be just the start of our partnership and are looking forward to welcoming them onto the programme for this year’s festival.’

Sean McLoughlin of Metal, said, ‘It’s great to be working with the Leigh Folk Festival again. We have worked with them over the years back stage with kit share etc but it’s nice to be part of the ‘front of stage’ programme this year. The two groups of young people that we have been working with over the past few months are really looking forward to having such a great platform and are thrilled to be part of the Leigh Folk Festival, as it’s such a popular and well known local event.’

Davey Hal from SoSlam said, ‘These festivals are such great opportunities for young people to celebrate their talent and ongoing progression. We are delighted, honoured and extremely proud to be part of this year’s fantastic line up.’ SoSlam performers will include Anna-Marie Childs, Genevieve Johnson, Lottie Mollica, Niamh O’Shea, Bavard, Leo C and Scarlett Taylor.

Following on from Friday evening’s event, on Saturday 23 June, Metal will also be running a Festival Utopia workshop with artists Emma Edmondson & Laurence Harding at the Folk Festival in Leigh Library Gardens. Edmondson and Harding will be exploring the idea of a utopian festival. They hope to get feedback from the folk-festival-goers about what they would like to see and do at a festival, which will then filter into planning for Village Green 2019. Metal will be announcing the date and headline for next year’s festival later in July.

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