Music festival celebrates local artists
Rochdale Online – 25 May 2014
A music festival held today (Sunday 25 may) has celebrated local artists who produce and create their own music.
The festival, which was organised by not-for-profit organisation Music Street in association with Made in Rochdale and The Friends of Queens Park Heywood, was a family event encouraging people to listen to local artists.
Organiser Christian James said: “A lot of people think that they have to go out and buy CDs and have a DJ tell them what is popular but if they just listen to local artists who are producing their own music, they will find some good stuff out there.”
The festival included performances from Muttley, One Klick North, The Fellons, Featherteeth, Joe Dunne, Matt Hamer, The Bigsby Brothers and DJ Mase.
The festival was also a way for people to be made aware of local organisatons within Heywood. Christian added: “We are trying to work with local organisations to raise awareness of them and to let people know what is going on in Heywood.”
Heywood Youth Link, Recovery Public and High Level were all in attendance at the festival.
The festival was held in Queens Park in Heywood and was the first festival held in that park by the group. The group have organised other successful festivals in the past, including Deeply Dale.
“We try and do festivals when we can and when we have the money available but we would like to try and make this one a regular event,” said Christian.
Music Street is a voluntary organisation set up for the advancement of the arts, heritage and culture in the local community.
Any money made by the festival will be used to go back into the community for similar events.
“We don’t take any money for ourselves, any money we get will go back into hopefully doing more of these events in the future,” said Christian.
Monkey Business Music Festival in Queen’s Park, Heywood
Media picture coverage in the Manchester Evening News.
Recipient: Music Street
Project: Monkey Business Festival 2015
Fund: Events Fund – page 9/10
Awarded: £1,887
Music Street is a non for profit voluntary organisation established to advance the arts,
heritage and culture in the community. Education, support and advice is available to provide
opportunities for local artists and musicians. In addition to staging a number of indoor
concerts and open mic jam nights, Music Street have organised three free festivals in the
borough; the Deeply Dale Festival in Cronkeyshaw and two Monkey Business Festivals in
Queen’s Park, Heywood that enable local and original artists to be appreciated in their home
town.
Music workshops are held weekly at The Recovery Republic Well Being Centre to provide an
opportunity for people to get involved in group activity with therapeutic benefits. These
sessions include learn music theory, song writing techniques and guitar lessons for
beginners. Support given to local musicians includes promoting their gigs and music
releases, producing compilation CDs, organising events and open mic nights and offering
affordable rehearsal space.
The Monkey Business Festival was a family friendly free music festival held in Queen’s
Park, Heywood on 24 May 2015 that helped raise awareness of local services and groups.
Recovery Republic and Friends of Queens Park benefited from the promotion of the
facilities, services and resources they offer to local people. Heywood musicians had the
opportunity to perform their own music in front of their families, friends and the local
community and promote the vibrant music scene developing in Heywood and an appreciate
of the arts in a beautiful park. The grant awarded contributed towards crowd safety
barriers, portable toilets, security, PA system, face painting and publicity. Music Street
acquired new skills from the event, predominately in planning and organising a festival on
such a scale.
This one day festival promoted and celebrated some of the best acts in Heywood and on
the local scene. The artists who played the Monkey Business Festival have seen wider
exposure for their talents amongst people in the community with a programme produced
detailing the artists and further afield as the event was filmed and uploaded to Youtube.
Music Street report the feedback and knock on effects of the festival have been very
positive and they have seen a rapid upsurge of collective ideas that have influenced a great
many people, organisations and services that will surely benefit the community long into the
future.
“…so many varied local and original artists coming together and playing a diverse
range of styles to an appreciative audience. The most pleasing thing was to witness
first-hand the evident spirit and camaraderie amongst everyone involved with the
project”
Christian Atkinson
Creative Director
Music Street
Deeply Dale People’s Music Festival
Rochdale Online – 26 August 2014
Deeply Dale People’s Music Festival at the Donkey Pub, Syke
The spirit of Rochdale was out in full bloom on Syke Common this Sunday (24 August) at Deeply Dale People’s Music Festival.
Local artists and music fans gathered in support of local talent, where acts played aboard a class one truck at the back of the Donkey Pub.
The Social Leftover was on first and treated the crowd to a special blend of harmonious folk rock, and excited everyone with their refreshingly joyous sense of melody.
Cosmic Slop took the stage by storm, delivering a rousing set of acoustic punk and visibly wowing the audience with their sense of fun and energy.
The Bigsby Brothers performed a belting array of acoustic jazz standards that naturally invited people to get up dancing.
Trent & the Darkwings then turned things up a notch and blasted out a string of new, original rock numbers to please the crowd.
Blues singer, Emma Ellis played an intimate set of soulful originals.
With an attentive crowd baying for more, young singer-songwriter Joe Dunne then captured the moment and stirred the imagination by playing a mixture of covers and original tunes that evoked the magic of a young Bob Dylan.
Joe Rainmaker, armed with his violin and cybertropic beats, took things to a new level with a spirited set of alternative ambience.
With the evening closing in, festival favourites Featherteeth and brothers Daz and Rew brought the house down with a magical performance.
The festival then moved inside for the night time, with Deejay Mase spinning the Donkey pub into frenzy with his dazzling skills on the decks.
With the energy and anticipation building, punk band Evil Eye exploded on stage and fired things up with a brave set full of gusto.
Anniversary of Recovery Republic
Rochdale Online – 30 July 2014
Dr Michael Taylor, Mayor Carol Wardle and Phil Emmott, Financial Director of Recovery Republic
Hundreds of residents turned out in the sunshine on Saturday 26 July to celebrate the second anniversary of Recovery Republic.
A bouncy castle, face painting and juggling entertained children and the free food proved very popular with all guests.
Mayor Carol Wardle attended the event and was very impressed with the centre and its services.
At the music event in the evening, musicians from Heywood and Rochdale took to the stage. The concert featured Heywood four-piece One Klik North, acoustic singer Joe Dune, Christian James from Music Street, Des Basterfield from Songsmith Solar, and Luke and Chris from Rainmaker.
Dr Michael Taylor was pleased with the day’s events, and said: “A very big thank you to everyone who came during the day, the bands, musicians and of course the volunteers, without whom the day would not have been possible. Here’s to next year.”
Recovery Republic is a non-profit organisation, located on York Street, Heywood. They offer a wide range of activities to promote health and wellbeing for people, primarily Heywood residents in recovery or post-treatment, at their purpose built centre.