Hexham Bluegrass festival is a growing collective of musicians playing bluegrass and old-time music in the north east. We want to build on the success of the three day festival in 2023. We are partnered with Hexham Town Council, which has organised the free Bandstand sessions in Hexham's Sele Park since 2021; and with Core Music, a CIC in Hexham, that programmes and manages the Bandstand Sessions. During the year we hold classes with professional bluegrass musicians and sessions and last year we ran sessions in the run up the festival which included busking, a showing of Oh Brother where art thou ( a film famed for its Bluegrass sound track) and talks in the library about Bluegrass. We will be organising a free run up programme again this year. In this year's festival we hope to grow interest and participation through offering more workshops, jam sessions and performances around Hexham. We are also working with a youth music group to provide volunteer opportunities and experience in running music events. The Sele is a free public space and we work closely with Northumberland County Council and Hexham Community Partnership in the management of the space, which is a town resource. We are a constituted group with a management committee.
