GLASGOW. The Pearce Institute.
The third annual Govan Music Festival opens in Glasgow today, gearing up for four days of progressive performances and inclusive cultural participation at venues across the historic district.
Govan Music Festival 2024 springs into action in Glasgow
Opening day images will be available to download here from 1300 hours
The forward-thinking Govan Music Festival opens in Glasgow today as it gears up for four days of progressive performances and inclusive cultural participation at venues across the historic district.
As the city gets set to enjoy the first days of spring, the event will see the south west corner of Glasgow blooming and brimming with freshly curated cultural activities which reflect and celebrate the diverse communities of Govan.
Now in its third year, the festival runs until Saturday 16th March and is part of a community-led regeneration strategy showcasing all that the neighbourhood has to offer including homegrown, Scottish and international talent across folk, fusion, world, classical, jazz and hip-hop music.
Over the coming days the festival, which is run by Govan’s regeneration orchestra The Glasgow Barons supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland, is set to demonstrate how music can enhance people’s lives and revitalise an area.
Performances range from a unique collaboration between Scottish rappers and folk and jazz musicians, to an exceptional night of world music and Gaelic trad rock.
Friday 15th March will see Freed Up Friday, the launch party for Freed Up CIC, an independent producer of sober adult events specially curated for the recovery community. Scottish hip hop meets orchestral rave for this night at Park Villa Community Sports Hub, with performances from leading Scottish rappers Sweet Rogue, Freestyle Master, MOG and Dazza JFT. Popular rave tracks will also be mixed by GBX duo Gonzo and MC Cally accompanied by live strings from The Glasgow Barons.
The night will also see Freestyle Master, Sweet Rogue and MOG work with folk and jazz violinist Roo Geddes, accordionist Neil Sutcliffe and bassist Ewan Hastie, winner of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022, to present a brand new acoustic set of bare knuckle Scottish hip-hop fusion.
A coming together of trad and world music will take place on Saturday 16th March at Edmiston House as the award-winning Musicians in Exile and Glasgow Gaelic indie trad band DLÙ put on a special double bill concert. The musicians will debut a new song they have composed for the festival, inspired by Scotland’s natural environment. Musicians in Exile travelled to Loch Lomond before beginning work with DLÙ, giving New Scots the chance to connect with climate change and Scottish nature.
Classical music and jazz will also be celebrated when The Glasg
The third annual Govan Music Festival opens in Glasgow today, gearing up for four days of progressive performances and inclusive cultural participation at venues across the historic district.
Govan Music Festival 2024 springs into action in Glasgow
Opening day images will be available to download here from 1300 hours
The forward-thinking Govan Music Festival opens in Glasgow today as it gears up for four days of progressive performances and inclusive cultural participation at venues across the historic district.
As the city gets set to enjoy the first days of spring, the event will see the south west corner of Glasgow blooming and brimming with freshly curated cultural activities which reflect and celebrate the diverse communities of Govan.
Now in its third year, the festival runs until Saturday 16th March and is part of a community-led regeneration strategy showcasing all that the neighbourhood has to offer including homegrown, Scottish and international talent across folk, fusion, world, classical, jazz and hip-hop music.
Over the coming days the festival, which is run by Govan’s regeneration orchestra The Glasgow Barons supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland, is set to demonstrate how music can enhance people’s lives and revitalise an area.
Performances range from a unique collaboration between Scottish rappers and folk and jazz musicians, to an exceptional night of world music and Gaelic trad rock.
Friday 15th March will see Freed Up Friday, the launch party for Freed Up CIC, an independent producer of sober adult events specially curated for the recovery community. Scottish hip hop meets orchestral rave for this night at Park Villa Community Sports Hub, with performances from leading Scottish rappers Sweet Rogue, Freestyle Master, MOG and Dazza JFT. Popular rave tracks will also be mixed by GBX duo Gonzo and MC Cally accompanied by live strings from The Glasgow Barons.
The night will also see Freestyle Master, Sweet Rogue and MOG work with folk and jazz violinist Roo Geddes, accordionist Neil Sutcliffe and bassist Ewan Hastie, winner of the BBC Young Jazz Musician 2022, to present a brand new acoustic set of bare knuckle Scottish hip-hop fusion.
A coming together of trad and world music will take place on Saturday 16th March at Edmiston House as the award-winning Musicians in Exile and Glasgow Gaelic indie trad band DLÙ put on a special double bill concert. The musicians will debut a new song they have composed for the festival, inspired by Scotland’s natural environment. Musicians in Exile travelled to Loch Lomond before beginning work with DLÙ, giving New Scots the chance to connect with climate change and Scottish nature.
Classical music and jazz will also be celebrated when The Glasg
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NewsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 I'm Campbell Parker.
00:26 I'm the general manager of the Glasgow Barons.
00:29 Today is the launch of the Govan Music Festival.
00:32 This is the third year which the festival is running,
00:35 and it's a fantastic event which puts Govan really
00:39 on the cultural map in Glasgow.
00:41 We're bringing classical musicians to Glasgow.
00:43 We've got rappers and hip hop artists,
00:46 as well as singer-songwriters that sing around Govan.
00:50 So we are performing in Govan Lint House Parish Church.
00:53 That's on Thursday night.
00:55 That's with our artistic director, Paul McAlinden,
00:58 who's also our conductor.
01:00 And we're with a huge symphony orchestra performing
01:03 Mahler's Fourth Symphony.
01:05 We're also along today at 1 o'clock and 7.30
01:09 at the Fairfield Club, where we see a showcase of all
01:12 of Govan's schools across the whole area
01:14 come together and perform at 1 o'clock today, which
01:18 is completely free to enter.
01:20 And 7.30 is Gotta Dance, Gotta Sing.
01:23 And that's a collection of Govan singer-songwriters,
01:26 dance troops, you name it.
01:28 The best of Govan is going to be featured tonight
01:31 in the Fairfield Club.
01:32 On Friday, we've got the Four Barons,
01:35 which is our string quartet resident in Govan.
01:37 They've been rehearsing here in the Pierce Institute
01:40 for the last three days.
01:42 On Friday, they perform in Kinning Park Complex, 7.30.
01:47 Also on Friday night, we have Freed Up,
01:49 who are performing at Park Villa Community Hub, which
01:53 is a collaboration with the Recovery Consortium.
01:56 And that's putting together the best of Scottish hip hop
01:59 alongside the Glasgow Barons, where
02:01 we're performing along with live string,
02:04 kind of looking at Ibiza classics.
02:06 And it's going to be a fantastic night.
02:08 As well as that, we've had our musicians pair
02:11 with rappers in Scotland.
02:14 And we're looking at pairing them
02:16 with acoustic musicians, bass players, accordion players,
02:20 with rappers to create something new that's
02:24 never been done before, which is really, really exciting.
02:26 Govan is a very special place.
02:29 There's so much history here, so much cultural history.
02:33 The buildings here were built for music.
02:36 If anything, the Glasgow Barons, which
02:38 is a charity to help inspire change in Govan through music,
02:42 we are looking at using these buildings again
02:44 for their heritage to inspire people,
02:47 to bring hope to Govan through music,
02:50 and also to show people who are not from Govan what's
02:54 going on here and why they should come to Govan
02:56 and see what a fantastic place it is.
02:58 The Govan Music Festival is for everyone.
03:00 On Saturday night as well, that's
03:01 the climax of our festival.
03:03 We have our famous musicians in exile
03:05 who are doing a collaboration with the Gaelic folk
03:08 and rock band, Dulu.
03:10 So we're looking at the asylum seeker population,
03:13 the refugee population.
03:14 We're looking at the hip hop scene in Scotland,
03:18 attracting them with our great offering,
03:20 as well as the classical music lovers in Scotland,
03:23 bringing it all together here in Govan,
03:25 making it a cultural hotspot.
03:27 So tickets can be purchased online.
03:29 They're rock bottom prices.
03:31 They're at one pound, maximum five pounds.
03:34 They are on Eventbrite or on the 16th,
03:37 we're performing in Edmonton House with musicians
03:40 in exile and Dulu.
03:41 And that's purchased via their website.
03:43 The thinking is that music is and should be for everyone,
03:46 and price shouldn't be a barrier to that.
03:50 As well, on the 16th, if you have an ARC card, which
03:53 is issued to asylum seekers and refugees,
03:56 there's free entry for you as well.
03:58 As we know, there's price barriers there.
03:59 Music should be for everyone.
04:01 Price shouldn't be an issue.
04:03 If you would like to be involved in the Govan Music Festival,
04:06 come and speak to the Glasgow Barons.
04:08 Come and speak to me.
04:09 Come and speak to Paul McElindon.
04:11 We're always up for different ideas,
04:12 different collaborations.
04:14 It's always about a celebration of music,
04:16 and it's about a celebration of Govan and the community
04:19 here in Govan.
04:19 My name's Neil Sutcliffe.
04:27 I'm an accordion player, and I am
04:29 playing as part of a collaboration called Lab Raps
04:33 with two other musicians, Rue Geddes and Ewan Hastie,
04:36 on fiddle and double bass.
04:38 And we've been collaborating over this week
04:40 with three amazing Scottish rappers
04:43 to explore acoustic music meets rap
04:47 and some of our mixture of classical and traditional
04:50 and jazz influences coming into that.
04:52 It's been amazing.
04:53 We've had a great week.
04:55 I think it's been a really interesting collaboration
04:57 process for us as the musicians, maybe not having so much
05:01 experience working with rappers and learning
05:04 a lot about how they work and their writing process
05:07 and collaborating that way.
05:08 And also the rappers learn a bit about working
05:11 with us live in the room.
05:13 It's been great.
05:14 Just removing price and money as a barrier
05:17 to taking part in local community music events
05:20 is amazing.
05:21 So as you said, the most expensive ticket
05:23 for events in the festival is five pounds.
05:25 Some of them are one pound.
05:26 But our event on Friday is completely free.
05:28 So anyone can come along and take part
05:31 and see what it's all about, have a boogie at the back,
05:33 listen in.
05:34 I would say, first of all, come along
05:36 and see some of the stuff at the festival
05:38 and see what it's all about.
05:39 And if some ideas are coming to your mind,
05:41 if you're thinking, oh, that's great,
05:43 that's really the kind of work I want
05:44 to be doing, collaborating with new people
05:46 and really exploring local music making in Govan,
05:50 get in touch with the festival and with the Glasgow Barons.
05:53 And if you've got an idea, put it out there.
05:55 It's music based in Govan, about Govan.
05:58 That's something we've been exploring with the rappers
05:59 in particular, as you know, local issues
06:02 and trying to get wee local tunes or music snippets
06:06 or references in there.
06:08 But also hoping for a mixed crowd of classical musicians,
06:12 hip hop fans, some jazzers.
06:14 We might even have a wee bit of trad music
06:15 slipped in amongst the rap.
06:17 You just have to come along and find out.
06:19 (upbeat music)
06:21 - I'm Donna Boyd, I'm project manager
06:24 at Freed Up Community Interest Company.
06:26 - My name's Mog, I'm one of the rappers
06:28 working with the classical musicians.
06:30 - So Freed Up was part of the Scottish Recovery Consortium
06:33 and last year we were part of the Govan Music Festival.
06:37 We had an event and this year as an independent organisation
06:42 we're back and we're using it as our launch party.
06:44 - I've loved this because it's up my street.
06:46 You know what I mean?
06:47 Hip hop technically is usually beats,
06:49 you know, rappers, graffers, break dancers
06:51 and that have always been, in many words,
06:53 the band side of things or live instruments, live music.
06:56 So to me, this suits me perfectly, I love this.
06:58 - So three years ago there was a recovery
07:01 entertainment events post,
07:03 came up with the Scottish Recovery Consortium.
07:05 I was about five years into my recovery at the time
07:09 and over the past three years we've run two events a month.
07:13 So we've run a comedy night and a rave.
07:16 We've recently started doing hip hop nights as well.
07:18 And yeah, so it's about having fun and recovery with it,
07:22 drink our drugs and as I said,
07:24 we formed as a community interest company
07:26 and we've got the contract to continue that work.
07:29 - So to me, it's not a stretch to do this,
07:32 you know what I mean?
07:32 So I mean, like I said, to me it's a really good thing
07:34 and I heard what it was gonna be, I jumped at the chance
07:36 just because classical musicians, live instruments,
07:39 live performance, acoustic, that's up my street.
07:41 - And if you learned anything from working with these guys?
07:43 - Oh, big time, I've learned that if you whistle something
07:45 they can play it immediately, you know what I mean?
07:47 That freaked me out.
07:48 I just, the boys, "Oh, do you have an idea?"
07:49 And I went, "Aye."
07:50 And he just, "Durudurudum" straight away
07:52 and I was like, "Wow."
07:53 Stuff like this should be funded constantly.
07:56 If there's anything these days that's gonna get,
07:59 I mean, it governs an area where it needs it.
08:01 So if there's ever anything that's gonna get kids
08:03 off the street, it's something that speaks their language,
08:06 which these days, they're into music.
08:07 (upbeat music)
08:10 (upbeat music)
08:14 (upbeat music)
08:16 (upbeat music)
08:19 [MUSIC]