This year’s Stage4Beverley festival is almost upon us and with restrictions being eased, and one event already sold out, it promises to be a week full of excellent performances and entertainment.
Leading artists from around the country will be arriving in Beverley to bring their music, song, poems and more to venues around the town.
Chris Wade, the programmer for the festival said;
“The festival will bring a welcome relief to the dark Winter nights after long periods of uncertainty and isolation. We all now feel the need to get out and hear live music and entertainment. S4B is the perfect answer.”
Having expanded its reach into Beverley this year it will be programming informal events in the ever-popular Café Velo in North Bar Within, where the festival’s “Curtain Raiser” concert will take place on 15 February with music, poetry and drama, and the new element of the festival, Poetry is to have its main base.
A workshop led by local poets Clint Wastling and Julian Woodford will kick this off on the afternoon of Sunday 13th, with an evening on poetry and humour with Andy Blackford’s “Stand-Up Tragedy Tour on 19th; and “Pointing to Poetry” where Robin Dermond Horspool talks about his experiences of being “Poet in Residence” at Spurn Point on Sunday 20th.
The highlight of the poetry events will be the sell-out performance by our poet laureate, Simon Armitage, who will be reading “Live at Stage4Beverley” in the East Riding Theatre on Wednesday 16th.
Other highlights include the genre-bending, joyous force of Tankus the Henge; North Yorkshire’s only contemporary New Orleans inspired Brass Band The New York Brass Band, and the Yorkshire legend Jon Boden, the former frontman and founder of the folk supergroup, Bellowhead.
A wealth of multi-award-winning artists will be taking the stage, including Siobhan Miller quoted as being one of the “best traditional Scottish folk singers on the planet” Folk Roots. “A Touch of Americana” presents a double bill with Lauren Housley, winner of the Bob Harris Emerging Artist Award 2021 and nominated for the UK Song of the Year at the Americana Music Association UK awards and Lady Nade. It promises to be a show-stopping event.
Not satisfied with 3 award winners the festival will also be presenting The People Versus whose music crosses several genre boundaries and is fronted by the beguiling voice and personality of lead singer Alice Edwards.
Local performers including Katie Spencer, Michael Nagasaka & Kate Sweeting, Steel Rhyme; Nick Rooke and Paul Blackburn; Laura Da Sousa and Pete Bolton will also be performing over the festival.
For those wishing to “have a go” themselves, a workshop for all ages, young and old, will be led by Steel Rhyme who will be inviting participants “to join in with a ton of percussion to shake, hit and groove and an accordion to make you move”.
Tickets from East Riding Theatre Box Office 01482 874050 www.eastridingtheatre.co.uk