Last month we at the Albany Youth Programme collaborated with REZON8, Showponies production company, Cleo Savvy, Backstage Rebels and Lewisham Music to take eight young people to Glastonbury to get hands-on experience at one of the world’s biggest festivals. Together we created two separate projects that enabled young people to develop their creative and practical skills in a professional setting, with the overall aim to address the lack of Black and Global Majority representation at the festival on and behind the stage.
The Sound Project trained, paid and supported young sound engineers aged 18-30 to take on active technical roles at the festival while the Performance Project saw four emerging musicians aged 18-25 take to the stage. The four Performance Project participants were from REZON8. Prior to the festival, they participated in six boot camp sessions to prepare for the opportunity.
Lily aged 19, one of the performers, found out about REZON8 in 2022 through her grandad, who saw the programme online, “I’ve been singing properly since I was around 11” Lily tells us, “It felt amazing to sing at Glastonbury and overall, a really great experience”. Moziah, aged 18, went to school with REZON8 founder Kieron Morris and they reconnected years later after bumping into one another on the street. “It felt amazing performing at Glastonbury…The whole idea of sleeping to perform the next day and repeat it was just really satisfying to me”, Moziah says.
The performers were chosen from a wider pool of REZON8 artists for their passion and readiness, however some attendees had never been to a festival before let alone Glastonbury, and the weekend was filled with new experiences. “One thing I learnt was to not be too hard on myself, to believe in myself and to have fun. There was loads of support and encouragement around me from everyone so it was hard not to do those things!” Lily continues, “Going forward, I will remember what I learnt and carry it forward with me to ease future performances.”. As for Moziah and what he’s learned from the experience “If there’s an opportunity to always take it! You never know where it might lead.”