Music

The 1 Big Summer Festival in Plymouth will not go ahead this year due to the cost-of-living crisis, organisers have announced.

The festival was due to be held in Hoe on 25-26 August, but financial pressures for both organisers and visitors have been cited as the reason for its cancellation, the BBC reported.

“A perfect storm of rising costs, reduction in sponsorship income, an end of support for tourism and hospitality such as VAT reductions, and an unprecedented strain on people's disposable income have sadly left the event untenable for this year,” organisers said in a statement.

People who have already purchased tickets will be refunded within 21 days.

The BBC has set aside redundancy pay for musicians who are expected to be laid off from BBC orchestras and the BBC Singers.

The classical music news site Slipped Disc reports that Simon Webb, the BBC's Director of Orchestras, informed an internal BBC meeting that the redundancy money has been ringfenced in next year's budget.

Webb said the money was already signed off and that it was a "one-off cost ... from a different part of the BBC".

Slipped Disc's Norman Lebrecht also reports that Webb said there there was not enough commercial work to fulfil BBC Director General Tim Davie’s plan of external funding for the orchestras.

The Musicians' Union is currently in negotiations with the BBC regarding the future of BBC Performing Groups.

Last month, the corporation announced proposals to cut employed posts across BBC Singers and three orchestras. 

A punk band from Germany claim they were refused entry to the UK for a seven-date UK tour due to confusing post-Brexit rules.

Trigger Cut, a three-piece band from Stuttgart, said they were turned away by the UK Border Force at Calais on last Thursday (6 April).

After having their passports confiscated, they were asked for a certificate of sponsorship (COS) from each of the venues they were due to play at.

They did not have the certificates and planned instead to enter under the permitted paid engagement (PPE) exemption.

Writing on Facebook, Ralph Schaarschmidt, the band's guitarist, said: “Months of planning, 1,750km of driving to Calais and back to Stuttgart, van hire costs, paid-for expensive customs declarations, ferry ticket – all for nothing.

"We are sitting in a deep dark hole emotionally right now, this is a nightmare … I’ve never felt so degrad[ed], sad and bad as I do today.”

Music agent Ian Smith, who campaigns to help artists work in the EU and UK, said artists are often refused entry to the UK from the EU because of post-Brexit requirements.

He said: “They are so bloody opaque and confusing.” 

A government spokesperson said musicians and performers are a "valued and important part of UK culture [which is why] we offer a dedicated immigration route for creative workers".

“All visa applications are carefully considered on their individual merits in accordance with the immigration rules."

More than 60 youth music projects in Scotland have received funding in a bid to 'drive inclusivity and tackle social issues'.

Nearly £1.7m has been provided to 63 community music projects through the Scottish Government-backed Youth Music Initiative (YMI).

The funding is administered by Creative Scotland.

Most of the funded projects – 58 in total – received awards through the Access to Music Making stream, aimed at young people who face 'opportunity barriers'.

The remainder were funded via Strengthening Youth Music. This supports individuals, organisations and networks which undertake 'strategic action' to promote the country's youth music sector.

Morag Macdonald, YMI Manager at Creative Scotland, said the funding was "supporting an incredibly diverse array of projects that will create meaningful opportunities for children and young people to take part in music activities right across the country".

Now in its 20th year, projects funded by YMI in this latest round include Paisley-based Kibble Education and Care Centre, Music Space in Glasgow – a new initiative produced by AC Projects, the organisation behind the city's Counterflows festival – and Angie's Project in Edinburgh, which focuses on electronic music production education.

YMI's flagship funded projects include the National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland, Highlands-based Fèis Rois and Lothian’s A.R.T.S Afternoon. 

A collaborative workshop is planning to make outdoor musical instruments more accessible, particularly to young people who are blind or partially sighted.

The workshop, a collaboration between Percussion Play, the Royal Society for Blind Children (RSBC) and the Amber Trust, will take place at RSBC’s Life Without Limits Centre in London in April, to discover how Percussion Play’s instruments can be improved and made more accessible for vision-impaired children and young people.

The session will be facilitated by Amber Music practitioner Gennie Joy, who will guide children and their families in how to play instruments from Percussion Play, including Babel Drums, Cyclone, Cavatina and Tubular Bells.

Percussion Play hopes the workshop will help it identify the shapes, heights, colours and finishes most beneficial to people with vision impairments.

The instrument manufacturer also hopes to create a new instrument specifically for people who are blind or partially sighted during the collaborative session.

“We are excited to be working with the RSBC and The Amber Trust to discover how we can make our instruments even more inclusive,” said Jody Ashfield, Co-Founder and CEO of Percussion Play.

“Our instruments are designed so everyone can enjoy making music and we hope to improve our current range by engaging with young people who are partially sighted and discover what changes could be made to make them more accessible.”