Musician Feedback from 2010
We just wanted to send along the biggest thank-you in the world for all that you did to make our first UK tour such an amazing time. We're so happy the Festival was such a success, you surely deserved it. We already can't wait for the next time we'll be able to make our way out there again. We so miss the real ales, the beer here has truly been depressing to drink!!! :-)
Brett and Geremy (Threefifty Duo, New York City, USA)
Bloody big congrats on getting this amazing festival together, you should feel rightly proud of what you've achieved. Everyone has been talking about it too - musos and others, with people asking each other 'what should I go and see at this festival', and others doing musical pub crawls
Bill Roberts (Lancaster)
We just wanted to say thanks for everything you did for us with the Lancaster Festival, we had an absolute ball!! It was a really great festival and a pleasure to play at. I loved the venues, the audiences, the bands, the town itself and most of all the cast and crew, as everyone's enthusiasm was tangible
Marisa Yeaman (Melbourne, Australia)
I just wanted to thank you for the opportunity to play there in your beautiful town. We really had a great time there this weekend and greatly appreciate the hospitality everyone extended to us. We felt very welcome and comfortable and truly had a bloody good time!
Levy (Level 10, Tampa Bay, Florida)
Just wanted to say thank you so much for booking us for Lancaster and for organising everything for us. We had a brilliant time and we were pleased with how well the gigs had been promoted. People really seem to care about the festival and I don't doubt it'll be even bigger next year!
Los Salvadores (Canterbury)
I just wanted to say thanks very much for the gig at the merchants. It was actually one of the most enjoyable gigs I can remember. A great crowd and an overwhelming reponse. Everybody thinks the festival was an enormous success and I am definitely one of them - you should be congratulated massively on all your graft. I hope you do one next year and that powers that be recognise what an important (and permanent) part of the cultural scene your festival can become.
Thanks again.
James and John (Get Carter, Lancaster)
Bonsoir! A big thank you to you for an opportunity of a great gig, for all the fantastic music you provided, what a weekend! It has been a pleasure.
Viva live music
(Gobble De Gook, Lancaster)
Some of our Feedback on the international acts that played 2010
Level 10 (Tampa Bay, USA)
My personal highlight of the whole Lancaster Festival though I must declare an interest in funky, Cuban, Brazilian and American modern jazz played at Grammy nominated level and Level 10 are just that. Their performance at a packed Dalton Rooms on the Sunday evening, one of the last shows of the festival was, for me, as good as it gets.
Levy DeAndrade (keys), Rex Freligh (sax), Yovannis Roque (bass) and Sean Fote (drums) are undisputed masters of their respective instruments and the dexterity and ferocity with which they play together on Levy’s complex yet highly rhythmic compositions is the key to the response this band received. Not only was the dance floor packed but the band received that most positive of audience feedback: the audience’s approval after songs was so loud that the mics on stage started to pick it up and feed the jubilant roar back into the PA. This is, as far as I know, something new for Lancaster. It happened with Level 10 on Sunday Oct. 10th 2010. May it happen here again and soon!
Marisa Yeaman (Melbourne, Australia)
Marisa combines a lyrical and assertive voice and guitar to her original folk and bluesy compositions that is particularly refreshing and effortlessly charismatic. Her easy confident manner with the audience is engaging and all her sets were enthusiastically received. As with all the acts we hope she comes back in 2011.
Threefifty Duo (New York City, USA)
An unusual musical phenomenona best described as an original breakthrough of a traditional genre. Threefifty Duo emulate the classical greats not by copying note for note every scored nuance from ancient manuscripts but by forging their own classical style that is deeply influenced by baroque and the hot contemporary scene in their native NYC thereby synthesising something completely fresh, invigorating, and compelling to all audiences. In this way they are more like a Mozart or a Bach than any Berklee classical copycat scholar can ever hope to be (they are actually graduates of Yale School of Music). They were particularly popular at this festival endearing an ever larger gathering of new fans at each subsequent performance.
Marina Zettl & Thomas Mauerhofer (Vienna, Austria)
A trio of musicians from Vienna and worthy ambassadors of that famous musical city. Their playing is simply enchanting and compelling – you really could hear the proverbial pin drop when Marina sang. Thomas was playing a hybrid guitar and a number of musicians in the audience were suitably impressed with his ability to accompany his lead and rhythm work with a dissociated bass line on the same instrument. Their original music is at once both haunting and rhythmic, though stretching the word ‘jazz’ they could easily play any top jazz venue in the country
(all reviews above written by festival coordinator and booker of the international program, Ben Ruth)
LMF 2011 was a "wonderful weekend of music, food, and general mayhem and merriment to light up our wonderful city … next year can only be better." Ben Ruth
2012
The Festival never sleeps. We hope to be taking new applications from musicians in February 2012 and will be featuring acts from Live and Unsigned as well as the regulars who just can't stay away.
Find us - contact us - advertising - blog
Just out of sight of the M6 between junction 33 and 34 and two hours on the mainline from London and Scotland (Edinburgh and Glasgow). On the National Express Route from London to Glasgow. Direct trains from Manchester International Airport on the hour take 1.5 hours.
General enquiries to: info@lancastermusicfestival.com
Musicians: Applications will open Monday January 30th and close July 15th.
Bands from within the Lancaster district can apply directly by emailing music@lancastermusicfestival.com
If you are a local business that would like to be advertised in the 2012 festival brochure, website and other press media please contact the festival coordinator at info@lancastermusicfestival.com for rates and options. There is a 20% advertising discount for members of Bay Tourism and / or Lancaster Chamber of Commerce.
There is a Festival MySpace set up for bands to use and a festival blog is available, courtesy of Sue Seddon of Lancashire Life. To keep up to date with what is going on and to sign up to our newsletter see contacts. You can follow our festival coordinator's immediate updates on our Twitter account. Or contribute to our Facebook Event Blog.
You can now download one of the many festival venue posters. All are in press quality pdf format.
About Lancaster Music Festival
This festival reflects the city of Lancaster’s musical abundance, excellence and diversity and is driven by more than 30 music locations, dozens of individual music promoters and organisations and hundreds of musicians. Expect almost 200 performances from local, regional, national and international acts ranging from classical to punk, electronica to blue grass, pop, indie, funk, rock, world, There will also be music industry workshops for those in the music business who want to develop their music livelihood further.
The festival has a set of aims, all of which are happy and good
About Lancaster
Innumerable restaurants and cafés (see food), a large number of real ale pubs (see ales - Mitchells of Lancaster, Penny Bank and Merchants ale festivals and trails), plenty of night clubs (10), two theatres, and lots of accommodation to suit every taste and every pocket. Farmer's markets, open air and covered. Two universities, a castle, cathedral, canal, salmon river, a 30 mile bay overlooked by the mountains of the Lake District, England's largest folly situated on a landscaped Victorian park overlooking the whole lot. And the whole lot only 3 miles from the beach easily reached by the over 110 miles of cycle paths in and around the city. These are some of the reasons Lancaster is a superbly unique festival location.
Oh yes, and there's the witch's curse too. But more of that when you get here.
Festival History
In 2009 we had our first all genre music festival. In many ways it was a pilot but it exceeded our expectations with many venues posting the busiest day, weekend or week since trading, many of the hotels and B&Bs fully booked, and an estimated 3-4000 folks attending the events. That year we had 18 venues, 60 acts and 80 shows (see 2009 FEEDBACK). In 2010, with virtually the whole city behind the event, we broke all those figures (despite the much touted recession) with over 30 locations, 100+ acts and nearly 200 performances. With one exception these were all within easy walking distance of each other with the majority being free entry. Current attendance estimates for 2010 were 4-7000 folks.
Unusually, this festival is entirely self-supported through the venues and local businesses that thrive here and the public and private organisations that support them. There are no grants or handouts.
