News / grassroots music
Collectives join forces for grassroots music extravaganza
Bristol’s grassroots collectives and DIY creatives are coming together to throw a weekend festival that will celebrate the city’s independent music and arts scene.
Midsommar Mansion will be a two-day extravaganza at Ashton Court mansion over the Solstice weekend, the event taking advantage of the height of summer and time of the longest night before daylight hours start reducing again on the journey towards midwinter.
The festival is a collaboration between Below the Belt, a grassroots label and music promoter, and the Community Jam Collective who are providing a second stage lineup. Music on offer will range from art-rock to dream pop, folk, punk, indie and jazz.
Art-rock quartet the Scuttlers will be launching their debut album at the festival – photo: Below the Belt
“Expect a look behind the curtain at the fresh, genre bending and vibrant sounds coming out of Bristol – a place both inside and outside of your musical comfort zone,” said Beth Zajac of Below the Belt.
“The Midsommar Mansion Festival will be two days to celebrate and showcase the scene that we’re so grateful to be a part of. We want to give a mansion-shaped platform to the eclectic talent that is coming out of Bristol, a small city but an aggressively vibrant one. Support the city you’re in.”
View this post on Instagram
Emerging and established artists appearing over the two days include the Eve Appleton Band, the Scuttlers, Dogsbody and Trans-Siberian Express, a chaotic indie-psyche outfit renowned for performing in homemade robot masks.
Other intriguing sideshows include Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Folk Forte, an unplugged lounge and the Rootless Society.
Zinezilla arts and zine fair will be selling bespoke comics, prints, stickers and badgers outside the mansion, animations will be projected onto its exterior by the Animinspo collective, and local videographer Phoebe Ashford and Youtube Live series Bopflix will be documenting the event.
The Eve Appleton band play ‘Bible-black parables, dancing music and ballads. Expect to hear echoes of Americana and Dirge Folk-Rock’ – photo: Below the Belt
Below the Belt is a grassroots collective that champions underground and indie artists with gig programming, video production and record releases.
They have recently announced a forthcoming remix collaboration with Amity which will serve to bridge the gap between the electronic and live music scenes.
The first in the series features art-rock band the Scuttlers, fronted by experimental performance artist Myer U Clark, who appeared at Dot to Dot and will be launching their debt album at the Midsommar Mansion party.
The Community Jam Collective support bands by providing spaces for them to come together, play and network. They host an open jam night at the Olde England in Montpellier on Tuesdays, with house instruments including synths available for musicians that turn up to use.
Find out more at headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/ashton-court/fri-20-jun-cjc-btb-present-midsommer-mansion-friday-129005#e129005 and headfirstbristol.co.uk/whats-on/ashton-court/sat-21-jun-cjc-btb-present-midsommer-mansion-saturday-129007#e129007
Main image: Ursula Billington
Read next:
Our newsletters emailed directly to you
