Goodbye 2021 and bring on 2022!

A message from Macclesfield’s Barnaby team – wishing friends and followers the very best for Christmas and the New year!

As we reflect on the challenging year of 2021, we would like to remind you of some beautiful moments in June when we held our first Barnaby Bright programme – please take a look at memories from programme and our 2020-2021 activity report here. We are also delighted to bring you filmed performances and promo videos from two of our commissions: Our Future Is Ancient by Simon Buckley / Not Quite Light, and the Brighter Sound Music Mash masterclass programme, in partnership with Mash Guru. See below for the links to these videos and enjoy the experience of Barnaby Bright once more.

Barnaby Bright was led by Programme Director, Carol Whitehead, who is working on other projects now, although we hope to be able to welcome her back to Macclesfield in the future.  In other news, we say goodbye to Abi Gilmore, who follows Nicola Waterworth in stepping down from their joint role as Co-Chairs of Barnaby Festival. We’d like to thank them for all of their work with the festival over the years, and look forward to seeing them as punters at Barnaby 2022.

The Barnaby Bright Music MASH industry masterclass programme ran during May and June 2021 as part of Barnaby Bright, taking place online and at Macclesfield premiere music venue, Mash Guru. Open to Macclesfield musicians who responded to the competitive call, the month-long artist development programme was produced by Brighter Sound and focused on taking emerging artists’ careers to the next level through digital streaming and live performance practice. The free programme included an attendance bursary and was designed to help support musicians who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic. You can watch the brilliant four promo videos by the C33s, Sour Honey, The Perps and WILLBAIN here

Our Future Is Ancient: Just six months ago during Barnaby Bright, we celebrated the longest day of the year, by hosting the performance of Simon Buckley’s Our Future is Ancient, inspired by his visits to capture Macclesfield Forest at first light on each full moon. The one-off performance of spoken word and music inspired by this commissioned project took place in St Michael and All Angel’s Church, Macclesfield, on the summer solstice of June 19^th 2021, featuring Simon Buckley with Liz Hanks (cello) and Rioghnach Connolly (flute and vocals). The entire performance can be viewed here on the Second Sight platform.

Finally, don’t forget that Barnaby returns next year for a festival edition so puts the dates of 17-19 June 2022 in your diaries. We are busy putting the short programme together and welcome volunteers, ideas, suggestions and donations! We are delighted to be planning the return of the Parade which will (fingers crossed) be the biggest and bestest for many years! To get involved sign up here

Wishing you all a very safe, warm and happy Christmas and see you in 2022!

The team at Barnaby

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