"Recognised
by LOCOG as the biggest community event of the London 2012 Festival
closing celebration, the Bandstand Marathon will see hundreds of events
in bandstands and other open spaces happening across the UK.
Taking
place on 9th September 2012 between 1pm – 5pm, this will be the largest
Bandstand Marathon to date, a truly national event linking local
communities and London 2012 "
I was really thrilled when @67 and the Wrexham Community Choir asked me to come along and photograph this event, at The Llwyn Isaf Bandstand . Having been given the information, I asked fellow photographer, Holly Cooper to come along and cover it with me - aside from the fact that it promised to be a big enough event to warrant at least 2 photographers, as mentioned in a previous blog, planning was taking place for the carnival celebrations, and some of the people taking part and attending the Bandstand, would also be heavily involved in the Carnival, and it was a great chance for Holly to meet them .
As well as the choir performing, there would also be several other local bands, and Yum Yum, (The Project) were also organising a community picnic to take place on the green at the same time .
Holly and I got there about an hour or so before the event was due to start, and I introduced Holly to some of the choir and the @67 members, and we were introduced to the crew handling the sound and some of the musicians taking part . Again, I'd been asked to get video footage, if possible, as well, so had brought not only my cam corder, but after the technical Gremlins had showed me just what they could do at the previous days Africa Entsha performance, I also had my HD film-capable camera, and a back-up DSLR too !
The day kicked off with the fabulous voices of the Wrexham Community Choir , first rehearsing, and then opening the music
And the music just kept on coming- it was fantastic to see so many talented local bands and groups .
Jo Marsh - Baby Brave
Baby Brave
40 Days
40 Days
The Crow Hearts
The Crow Hearts
And it was also good to see so many people enjoying the event - Gay, from Yum Yum had said that they wanted to see kids playing ball games and having fun - and they certainly did, not a gameboy or ipod in sight :)
The following is just a selection of images and video's of the bands, the audience and the team that helped put this day together
The Ready Get Set
Laura Leigh and Joey Dickenson, from 'Heal The Last Stand '
Dave Elwyn Band
Dave Elwyn Band
Dave Elwyn Band
Steve Hywyn Jones
Steve Hywyn Jones
It was a really good day to be a part of . Every time I do an 'event', I feel like I am learning new skills, which is obviously valuable , and as a bonus, again I get to meet a lot of new people and enjoy a lot of creative talent . Thanks to @67 and The Wrexham Community Choir - always a pleasure doing event with these two organisations, and this was definitely no exception .
It was nice as well, to see two of my images, and one of Holly's, used in a write up of the event, about a week later
Helfa Gelf - The Art Trail - is being promoted as part of the carnival celebrations in Wrexham. Taken from The Helfa Gelf Website
"Now in its seventh year, this free annual event is now spread right
across North Wales with studios taking part in Gwynedd, Conwy,
Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham. It is a unique chance for visitors
to peek behind the scenes, experience this normally hidden world and
get to chat to the artists and crafts people about their creative
process."
Glyndwr University has two groups of artists taking part in Helfa Gelf - The Glyndwr Collective, and The Glyndwr Applied Collective - and myself and fellow photographer, Dawn Field, attended the opening show/exhibition, and also visited the studios at the university, to catch some of the artists involved .
The opening show was really enjoyable - it was fantastic to see such a diverse range of art work, and a reminder about just how many talented artists study at Glyndwr .
Some of the many talented artists, pictured with examples of their work
Katie Brute - and Thank you Katie, for the initial invite to the show, and your help .
A few days later, I visited the studios to catch some of the artists at work .
This is Paul Davies, ceramic's student - Paul was kind enough to send me some background info on himself .
"I am 53years old . I came to university later in life due to a back
injury that eventually stopped me from working as an Upholsterer and
also a production operater for kelloggs uk.Being dyslexic I was worried
about the academic side of the course but I have had a lot of help and
support from the university. I started my 1st year on a 2year Foundation
course 2010/11, but at the end of the 1st year was asked if i wanted to
transfer to the BA degree course of which I am just starting my 3rd and
final year. "
Fellow Photographer Dawn Field is visiting quite a few of the studio's on the Helfa Gelf around Wrexham - after seeing the work produced by Glyndwr, I am really looking forward to seeing Dawn's images too .
Many thanks to all the artists of the Glyndwr Collective, and The Glyndwr Applied Collective - both the show and visiting the studio's were really great experiences :)
I've been lucky to cover a few events involving @67 and Wrexham Community Choir, and I was so thrilled when they asked me would I come and photograph a workshop they were involved with, at The Glasshouse, Cefn Mawr, with the absolutely amazing Africa Entsha - and then, that evening, photograph Africa Entsha's performance - following links put up on @67's page, I watched a couple of video's of this amazing a capella group, formally know as Soweta Entsha, and I knew this would be a fantastically enjoyable day .
However, I'll add here that for some reason, it was a day of technical failure, to a certain extent .The day started with my sat nav playing up and deciding to take me in completely the wrong direction - thankfully I still got to the Glasshouse in plenty of time .Then, a couple of days before, I'd been asked if I could find anyone to film this event, but sadly, hadn't managed to drum up any volunteers - however, when I arrived, a cam corder had been found, and I had a spare SD card, so I figured I'd have a go at both film and photography :) I also eventually remembered that my camera has HD video - which turned out to be a blessing, because when I came to upload the video from the camcorder card, I found it was corrupted, and despite several hours of trying to correct it and salvage something, every thing I had filmed on that was lost - so I was very grateful and relieved that I had shot several sections of film footage on my canon !
Technical problems aside, I was right about it being a fantastic day . To start with, its always good to be involved with the choir - not just because I love the music these guys make, but also because they are so welcoming and really lovely people. It was nice to see Beryl and Penny from the Glasshouse again, too - I met with them several months ago when I photographed a 2 day Viking re-enactment they had organised at Ty Mawr Country park :)
I was introduce briefly to Africa Entsha, and their publicist, Jo, before the first part of the day - the workshop - started .The group were, to a man, so friendly and obliging, and Jo too was a really nice lady - we arranged that after the workshop, and before the performance, I'd take the guys outside and we would get a few informal publicity type shots - Jo explained that they needed some images for the groups website that was being put together.
Then - the workshop . The Glasshouse is a lovely venue, but as always with galleries of any sort, lighting is a pain ! Bright sunlight that came through the windows, was absolutely dazzling for the participants, so it was partially closed curtains and overhead lights . I really didn't want to use flash, when people were trying to concentrate and enjoy taking part, so it was up with the ISO again - however, I was still pretty happy with the photographs I got .
And - thankfully - I'd also recorded some of the workshop using the HD video on my camera
The 'Technical Gremlins', incidentally, came out to play again with this particular clip ! Although it appeared to have been recorded in the same format as every other clip I had filmed with the camera, the editing software I was using absolutely refused to play it - and nor would it upload to youtube or any other hosting site I tried - though it played perfectly in VLC, so I knew it wasn't 'lost' - it was 4 HOURS solid work to finally discover software that resolved the issue - I owe thanks to good friend Mark, and my husband, Sean , because it was combination of their advice that finally enabled me to sort it - meanwhile, I remembered why I prefer photography to film !
The atmosphere during the workshop was fabulous - everyone was having such a good time, and it showed - I hope I managed to capture some of that, with both the pictures and the footage I got ! The guys in Africa Entsha were just so enthusiastic, as well as talented, and everyone one of the participants was clearly loving it .
And a treat at the end - so glad I recorded this on my camera -
After the workshop finished, we were treated to some absolutely lush African food -
- I didn't realise how hungry I was till I smelt that food - and then I tasted it, and it was fabulous :)
The Jo arranged for the boys to pose for the photographs we had discussed earlier
Later, when I sent Jo these images she said they were 'amazing informal shots' and she was 'very happy', and they are going to be used on the web site that is currently being built for the group :) So, I am very happy too !
The guys had travelled from London the night before, and had had a packed itinerary for days - they had recently played at the Edinburgh festival (where they had been nominated for an award) and had a lot more dates to follow this event - but they never stopped smiling, and were incredibly courteous and friendly with everyone, posing for pictures with fans, and so clearly enjoying themselves - consummate professionals, as well as talented . They even had the energy for some fun, in between working :)
Then, the performance - I spoke to the boys manager beforehand, and he said the guys were fine with me using flash - thank goodness, because it was obviously darker during the actual performance .
And WHAT a performance ! These guys are so entertaining, again, their absolute pleasure and enjoyment was so evident - everyone watching was smiling !
And again - very glad I used my camera to film a couple of songs :)
A couple of days later, one of the images I took was used to produce advertising flyers for the group .
It was a really enjoyable day - I know I spent most of the time with a big smile on my face, as did everyone else there. Big Thank you to @67 and The Glasshouse, to the Wrexham Community Choir, to the workshop participants and of course, to the amazing Africa Entsha - if anyone reading this ever gets a chance to go these guys perform, please go - you really wouldn't regret it :)
