Macclesfield will come alive with the sound of music next summer thanks to a major new addition to the Barnaby Festival programme.
Peter Hook And The Light Live At The Music Box – photograph courtesy of Timothy Norris
For the first time, the festival will devote an entire weekend to live music showcasing the best of the town’s rich music scene. The Barnaby Music Fringe, which will take place over the final weekend of the Macclesfield Barnaby Festival (Friday June 27 to Sunday June 29), will celebrate music from a diverse range of genres from jazz to rock, via indie, blues, acoustic, pop and metal.
Performances will be staged in live music venues across the town which sign up to be part of the Fringe. Each will adopt a genre for the weekend and select bands and acts that epitomise that music style.
The Music Fringe builds on the town’s rich music scene and the success of live performance at the festival, not least the sell-out concert by Joy Division co-founder Peter Hook earlier this year.
Jane Munro, Barnaby Festival trustee, said: “Music has always played a key part in Macclesfield and the Festival programme. A Music Fringe that celebrates all kinds of music by all sorts of people seemed a natural next step and is very much in tune with the evolution of the Festival as a whole.”
The Music Fringe will be a fitting finale to the fifth Barnaby Festival, which stretches across three weekends in June 2014 and is set to be bigger and better than ever.
The festival kicks off on Saturday 14 June with another new addition to the programme – a Visual Arts weekend. Alongside the launch of dozens of exhibitions in unexpected and unconventional venues around Macclesfield town centre, the weekend will be packed with arts workshops and talks. Celebrating the festival theme of “industry”, work by emerging and established local talent will be showcased alongside regional and nationally-renowned artists funded by Arts Council England.
The main programme of events will run over The Big Weekend, Friday 20 to Sunday 22 June. Forming the centrepiece of the Festival, The Big Weekend will be jam-packed with live music, comedy, performance and lots of free family events like the Carnival Parade, organised by Barnaby spin-off charity Macclesfield Community ArtSpace.
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