Peter Bacon reports:

Shabaka Hutchings today (26 July) opens the ‘Apply to Play’ prize for grassroots artists who have the chance to showcase their talents at this year’s OneFest, which will be held in Sheffield and London on consective Saturdays in September.

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Here is the press release:

Shabaka Hutchings at the Sheffield OneFest 2019 venue, The Leadmill (Publicity photo)

“With the vision of overcoming one of the many overlooked obstacles faced by today’s emerging artists – the North/South divide – Shabaka Hutchings, curator of the award winning festival, OneFest, invites artists at grass roots level to apply to showcase at this year’s festival, which, for the first time, takes place across two cities; Sheffield and London.

“Five successful applicants, hand-picked by Shabaka, will take to the stage at both Sheffield’s Leadmill and London’s EartH, forming part of OneFest’s daytime programming. Aside from the live performance opportunities, winners will take part in a host of educational panels and workshops lead by inspirational music industry leaders. Open to the public, these sessions include ‘Bridging the Gap, the North South Divide’, a workshop and Q+A with Shabaka, Business, & Funding Workshops, plus ‘Let’s Keep the Conversation Going’ a further look at Mental Health support, and much, much more. Speakers include John McClure (Reverend and the Makers), Shlomo, Thomas Haywood (The Blinders), Skinny Pelembe and more.

“Shabaka Hutchings said: ‘‘Apply to Play’ has given me an opportunity to work on educating and expanding minds through the panels and workshops, as well as open doors for emerging bands to compete for a slot during the events. This is an element that was important to me when joining forces with the OneFest team. It’s incredibly important to me that the festival takes place in both the North and South, again breaking those unnecessary boundaries that have evolved within the music industry.’

“Applicants can ‘apply to play’ from 26 July 26  – 6 August via Music Glue, through the OneFest website. The competition is set to be fierce with the previous OneFest receiving an astonishing 800+ applicants.

“OneFest combines these daytime events with an exciting series of special one-off evening concerts across the two centres in London and Sheffield, all masterminded by Shabaka Hutchings. Alongside showcases from emerging talent and special one-off collaborations, OneFest presents shows from young British talent including Maisha (featuring British Jazz wunderkind saxophonist Nubya Garcia), Nat Birchall, Tom Skinner, Tom Herbert, Dave Okumu and Byron Wallen. Full Line up to be announced.”

OneFest 2019 is at The Leadmill in Sheffield on Saturday 14 September and EartH in London on 21 September.

LINK: OneFest website