Love Music Festival - touring festival for schools

Music from across the world in the first and biggest touring festival ever for some 9,000 children in Scotland

Whiteness and Weisdale Public Hall, Shetland. Monday 8 to Thursday 11 November 2010

Love Music Festival is a brand new and unique festival for children aged four to eighteen, presenting some of the best musicians and most astonishing music from across the world to young people all over Scotland, many of whom will be hearing new kinds of music and musicians for the first time. The tour will visit Whiteness and Weisdale Public Hall from Monday 8 to Thursday 11 November, and will be preceded by schools workshops in September. The Shetland school children involved will be part of some 9,000 young people across Scotland participating in this landmark event.

Love Music Festival has four individual days tailored for specific age groups at Whiteness and Weisdale Public Hall from 8 - 11 November: ‘Circus Invisible’ for four to seven year-olds; ‘Sonic Harmonic’ and ‘Balkan Mash’ for eight to thirteen year-olds; and ‘Electric Loops’ for the fourteen to eighteen age group. The stunning artistic line-up in Sheltand features ten groups and soloists from eight different countries: Eva Quartet, Bulgaria; Mamadou Diabate, Mali; Sväng, Finland; Creaking Tree String Quartet, Canada; Jonny Axelsson, Sweden; Kolektif Istanbul, Turkey; Huun Huur Tu, Tuva, and from the UK, Oren Marshall and the Charming Transport Band, Hobbit and Circus Invisible by Sokobauno with Sarah Kenchington.

Love Music Festival’s team of animateurs have created a range of resources and workshops, which they lead in selected schools in Shetland and the rest of Scotland, to help students and teachers build up to their festival day. With the specially commissioned, unique composition and audio mixer tool, Map Mixer, everyone is able to interact with sound, music, and each other, by creating and recording their own performances and sharing them all over the country. The Love Music Festival experience is rounded off at the festival itself with the opportunity to meet the artists, experience interactive sound installations and of course, the performances themselves.

Love Music Festival is conceived and curated by the composer Stephen Deazley, who says, “In my working lifetime I have witnessed the emergence of a slow but revolutionary way of developing creative music projects for young people in schools. Somewhere in my own thinking I asked a simple question – are there cultural and educational opportunities for our children to meet the best and most inspiring musicians from across the globe? The answer was no, and so, in response to this we say, why not? From this grew the philosophy behind the festival. You won’t find a diet of pop, traditional Scottish or classical music here, because young people have had long-standing and very successful access to this music. You will find digital music experimenters, jazz improvisers, ancient music from Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa, unbelievable sound-worlds colliding, international collaborations live on stage, inspiring live performances in barns, theatres, concert halls, schools and through internet broadcasts. All this supported by two months of educational outreach work in every area. I couldn’t have imagined anything better!”

Local partners Shetland Arts and Shetland Islands Council are supporting the Love Music Festival team on the Shetland leg of the tour. Shetland Arts Music Development Officer Bryan Peterson says, “It really is a fantastic project. The musicians involved are world class, and the learning resources, workshops and website are fascinating. It‘s sure to be an amazing experience for all the young participants”

You can start the Love Music Festival experience any time through its website – http://www.lovemusicfestival.com - which has much more than the incredible Map Mixer: there is a jukebox with tracks from all the Festival artists, resources to help make the most of your Festival Day for both young people and teachers and lots of information about all the artists. The website also provides a portal for remote learning, listening, skill sharing and networking groups of students, performers and teachers.

Love Music Festival is supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland’s Inspire Fund.