If you remember the call out in October for young people aged 13+ to take part in music workshops you’ll be pleased to know that the group stepped into the limelight at Illuminate Buxton on Saturday 24^th February. Calling themselves “The Echoes”, they showed four original tracks written since the end of last year, and invited our younger musicians from last year’s Tall Tales summer school to join them for their own two tracks.

The audience said “Great to watch!  Well done!” and “It was brilliant!  Well done everyone!

Our partnership with Buxton Heritage Action Zone completed on 24^th February with an outdoor stage featuring 6 local young bands, ahead of the Illuminate Buxton light show. Our group, calling themselves “The Echoes”, also helped coordinate the callout and programming of other local acts and worked with Buxton International Festival’s comms specialist, Harriet Grubb on a press release and marketing plan.

The young people involved spent five months attending workshops on how to produce their own music, alongside professional musicians such as Ríoghnach Connolly, BBC Folk Singer of the Year, producer Gareth Carberry and singer-songwriter Rhiannon Stephenson from indie-pop band LONG ISLAND. The initiative has been led by the Buxton Our Street Youth Panel, a group of young people who meet regularly to discuss what opportunities they’d like to see in the town and then work to make them happen. It was funded by Historic England, with their partners the National Heritage Lottery Fund and Arts Council England and is supported by High Peak Borough Council as part of Buxton’s High Street Heritage Action Zone project.

Toby, a member of The Echoes says ‘everyone involved has created songs with all their own instruments, their own ideas and everyone has their own unique role in the project’. When asked what to expect, he explained ‘there’s some big band, blues, hip hop, R&B-ish music, a variety of different sounds and feelings.  But the tracks all fit around a similar theme of overcoming obstacles and understanding yourself. Those were the kind of things we all had in common, and when we started writing about them, we felt they actually holds good life lessons for people of various ages.’ Another member, Hannah, who’s 14, explained why she got involved ‘I thought it sounded really interesting to work with people of a similar age to me to create music. It’s been really nice getting to know all these people that live around me.’ She says it’s been a positive experience ‘I’ve gained more confidence around people my age and I like creating music with other people because I know that they’ll support me and I can support them in that way.’ Toby agrees, saying ‘There’s a lot of creative freedom… because it’s just people around our age with similar interests and it’s really easy to just work with everyone and create something.’

Illuminate Buxton was definitely a night to remember, with original works made in Derbyshire – from the young bands, to the stunning light show later in the evening. The performers were thrilled to see the crowd turn out from Buxton and further afield. Toby said ‘it’s free live music, it’s original, with various new young rising bands involved” and Hannah adds ‘it’s just an experience for local people to come together to see how much talent our town has, and the different ways people can get involved in things.’

The bands performing were: Isaac Neilson, followed by Hillside Playback, The Echoes, Tall Tales, The Developers and finishing with Cheap Shades. Then at 6.30pm Illuminate Buxton kicked off at the other end of Spring Gardens.

We have more workshops coming up in the Easter holidays for our adult and young participants to share. In afternoon workshops on Monday 8th, Thursday 11th and Friday 12th April we will start putting together the final material for our September showcase of all that we love about nature and the natural world. Working in poetry, illustration, sound recording and script writing, we will create work for a celebratory journal, leaflet, exhibition and the Tall Tales summer school.

Get in touch if you would like to know more!  Contact sophie@highpeakarts.org or alison@highpeakarts.org