5million years BC to summer of 2009

Ancient History

Wirksworth is the perfect place for Street Music. Here ancient limestone a thousand metres deep (it reflects sound perfectly) meets gritstone (full of mica and quartz for extra resonance), and the Town

follows the hills, full of alleyways and oddball corners, to maximise the acoustic potential.

The famous Wirksworth Festival, recently recognised by the Arts Council as of major regional importance, is 2-3 weeks in September of magic and mayhem, bringing some of the best visual and performance arts to this town from across the UK and beyond. And the first weekend of the Festival is the Art and Architecture Trail, unique in the UK; a feast of visual stimulation (far too much to take in fully even over the two days) where you can buy great art cheap and also get to nosey around lots of people’s fascinating houses. Music has always been part of the Trail, with incidental music in the alleys and gardens and buskers and performers round the centre; slowly we realised what we had!

2007

By early summer three years ago we knew what could be done here and we aimed a little higher; 35 programmed events on the Saturday across 6 venues, 40 more on the Sunday, and a dozen ‘approved busking sites’; it showed what could be done.

2008 – ‘Total Street Music’

We decided to go for it, to see if Total Street Music could be made here in Wirksworth. 23 simultaneous venues! Noisy and brash in the centre, gentler around the gardens and alleys, so the music met you round corners coming back again. We provided six ‘sound stages’ with PAs and 17 acoustic busking sites - some with a power socket for those with their own portable amplification. And the musicians came, and at almost the last minute we realised we had a full house, with every single venue doing continuous half-hour slots of the most varied street music you could dream of. 70 separate Acts came to perform (around two hundred musicians) over 400 separate listed events across two afternoons; we raised eight gazebos and seven PAs, gave travel expenses to everyone who asked, all for love and two hundred quid. There was so much amazing music that the whole town (limestone and grit, gardens and ginells and oddball corners) rang with it; a kaleidoscope of sound, the entire town as one Soundscape. See ‘Musicians 2008’ for a full listing.

2009

2008’s Street Music was truly amazing - but some felt it was just too much to take in over the same weekend as the enormous Art and Architecture Trail. So for 2009 we aimed to have fantastic music in perfect locations and to get the organisation and the sound quality as near perfect as we could:-

• ‘Noisy Centre’ – amplified DJ/musicians and louder acoustic outfits in the Market Place and Memorial Gardens, and a ‘visiting sound stage’ outside the Library, to give a real buzz

• ‘Railway Songs’ at the restored Station, going on till 8pm on Saturday

• ‘Music to rest and relax to’– four fantastic venues all with seating, with longer sets and perfect acoustics, and

• ‘Performance areas’ for drama and choirs/loud acoustic bands/dancers etc

• ‘Outdoor Music in Wirksworth’ also ran Pub ‘Sessions’ both lunchtimes and on Saturday evening and a ‘Bands Night’, all free at local pubs.

5000 people came through Town over the two days, the Art on the Trails was awe-inspiring, the sun shone, and everyone was happy. 130 musicians covered 100 distinct ‘slots’ across nine venues, we had belly dancers, jiu jitsu and young Ukrainian dancers, and the infamous Shrug Ladies had the Town in stitches wherever they went. thanks to all concerned for an amazing weekend!
See ‘Musicians 2009’ for a full listing.