Mini fest postponed until June 2021

I hope that you’re all staying safe in these very worrying times. I’m now able to update you on the postponement of our Yorkshire Americana & Bluegrass Day at Marsden Mechanics. Due to the ongoing Covod-19 virus crisis, this of course cannot go ahead on the original scheduled date of Saturday 30^th May 2020. Taking everything into account, we have decided to re-schedule to a new date of Saturday 5^th June 2021. Please save the date, and let’s all hope that by that time we will be able to gather together again and enjoy the fun, happiness and balm for the soul that live music (and dance) can bring! We plan to have a number of excellent performances and participatory workshops, and hope to book many of the same bands that were planned for 2020. However the line-up will be subject to change (especially re: overseas artists) depending on how things develop over the coming months. I’ve asked our ticket provider wegottickets.com to go ahead and refund everyone who has bought tickets to date. You should receive your refunds in the coming days, but please be patient – they are very busy at the moment, as you can appreciate (and please allow for the Easter Bank Holidays).

Supporting musicians who have lost their livelihoods:

As you can imagine, touring musicians have been especially hard hit by the Covid-19 crisis, as venues close their doors, gatherings are (quite rightly) cancelled and airline flights are grounded, possibly for many months. Live performance provides the vast majority of income for independent artists these days, and the financial impact of this crisis on them cannot be overstated. Most of them live a precarious hand-to-mouth existence at the best of times, and we want to help them survive these financially devastating times – especially as they have done so much to bring joy to our lives with their music! Enjoying music online also brings us all some comfort, entertainment and connection as we all self-isolate at home. It has certainly brought me comfort over the last few terrible weeks, seeing and hearing my lovely musician friends perform thanks to the power of the interwebs. They are not doing it just for fun though – they really need our help, so if you are fortunate enough to still have an income, please consider chipping in.

If you can afford to, please consider supporting the bands we had booked for our 2020 mini-fest – by making a donation, buying their music, or signing up for an online lesson. You can also help by liking, following and sharing their social media pages and updates

AJ Lee & Blue Summit – sensational young California bluegrass band

• Buy and download AJ Lee & Blue Summit’s debut album at their Bandcamp page here.
• Watch their fab online concert from March on YouTube here (recorded just before they started self-isolating in California). Links to donate can be found at that YouTube link (also shared below) and at the Blue Summit website here.

Jaywalkers – fabulous UK folk/Americana trio

• You can buy Jaywalkers music and other merch at their website here (there’s also a donate button further down that page)
• We were also planning a mandolin workshop with Jaywalkers’ highly regarded mandolin maestro Mike Giverin. Budding mandolinists should check out his online lessons and resources at mandomike.com

Zoe & Cloyd – Natalya and John (aka Zoe & Cloyd) are an exceptional bluegrass/folk duo from North Carolina

• Buy Zoe & Cloyd’s music from their website here.
• Watch a great streamed concert from their home on their Facebook page here (they are married to each other!) and their tip jar/donation links are there too.

Tilter Wheel – the brilliantly entertaining Yorkshire/Lancashire bluegrass band don’t yet have an album on sale, but do follow them on their Facebook page here for news

Thank you for all your support of live music and independent musicians. I’ll share more updates over the coming weeks and months, sharing news from more of the wonderful artists that we’ve worked with over the past five years. Most important of all – please stay home and stay safe in the meantime if you possibly can.