BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Weekend

We’re very proud to announce that this year’s BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Weekend was as successful and inspiring as ever.

The three-day event ran from 19-21 October 2012, and forms part of a competition that Smooth Operations have run for the BBC for the past 15 years. The Young Folk Award has helped launch the careers of highly regarded folk acts including Jim Moray, Tim van Eyken, Jackie Oates, Bella Hardy, Megan Henwood and Moore Moss Rutter.

The Weekend is centred around a public concert, which was presented by Mike Harding at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Cumbria. Ten extremely talented young acts from across the UK performed in the free concert, which was watched by a panel of judges: Kellie While (Smooth Operations’ Head of Programmes), Steve Heap (Mrs Casey Music, Towersey Festival), Pete Lawrence (The Big Chill, Cooking Vinyl), and the professional musicians John Spiers (Bellowhead, Spiers & Boden) and Jackie Oates (The Imagined Village).

Based on the evening’s performances, the judges will select four nominees, to be formally announced on the Mike Harding Show at 7pm on 21 November on BBC Radio 2. The eventual winner will be announced at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in Glasgow on 30 January 2013, and their prize will include slots at the Towersey, Cropredy and Cambridge folk festivals, a live session on BBC Radio 2, and a year’s membership of the Musicians’ Union.

As well as the concert, the residential weekend included musical workshops led by John Spiers and Jackie Oates, who also offered practical advice about life in the folk world. Other guest speakers included representatives from the Musicians’ Union and the recording industry.

Picture by Kirstie Hunt Photography.

 

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