Fall into Autumn Festival coming up this weekend

Huddersfield-based music promoter True North Music hosts their live streamed Fall into Autumn Virtual Festival this weekend, with an entertaining line-up of talented Americana, bluegrass and folk/roots musicians from the USA and UK, including The Honey Dewdrops, Bill and the Belles, Stillhouse Junkies and Mishra. The evening concerts will be live streamed on True North Music’s Facebook page and YouTube channel on Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th October, and there will also be ticketed participatory workshops (via Zoom) in dance, songwriting and acoustic guitar on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Maria Wallace at True North Music usually books UK tours for grassroots artists and has hosted over 50 gigs in Yorkshire since 2015, winning Yorkshire Gig Guide’s Grassroots Award for Outstanding Promoter in 2017. Maria’s regular bluegrass and folk/roots gigs at The Carlile Institute in Meltham have become popular with both locals and music fans from further afield, almost always selling out – before the pandemic stopped play. A recent award from Arts Council England’s Supporting Grassroots Live Music fund will allow True North Music to continue bringing world class live music to local music fans, supporting both this virtual festival and two real-life concerts to be performed, filmed and live streamed in Meltham in early 2021 (subject to strict Covid-safe protocols). The funding will enable True North Music to pay all participating musicians a reasonable minimum fee in this very difficult time, and also cover the provision of some technical equipment to host, film and live stream the concerts.

Maria Wallace said “We’re busy putting everything together for this weekend’s virtual festival and hope to “see” lots of local friends and followers there. We’re delighted to have received the Arts Council grant which will enable us pay the artists a reasonable minimum. We’ll also be welcoming donations so that we can pay each musician as much as possible, as most musicians are facing a long, difficult winter with very few paid gigs. We’ve got some brilliant ticketed workshops too, which will allow people to really join in from the comfort of their own home. We’ve got a dance/body percussion workshop with the amazing Evie Ladin (who should have been performing at Hepworth Live this spring), a songwriting workshop with award winning Canadian folk duo The Small Glories, and for the guitarists, a workshop on the bluegrass flatpicking style with Charlotte Carrivick of bluegrass sensations Midnight Skyracer. Please join us and help keep grassroots music alive!”

More details can be found at True North Music’s website and Facebook page:
http://www.truenorthmusic.co.uk/virtual-festival/
https://www.facebook.com/truenorthmusicuk

For more information visit http://www.truenorthmusic.co.uk/virtual-festival/