Five-day music fest on the way

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Glastonbury – Melbourne is being transformed into its own live music venue next month with organisers planning to make it an annual event

Riffing on the eternal question as to whether Melbourne is a village or a town, the Big Village Small Town musical extravaganza hits local venues over a fiveday period marking the second May Bank Holiday weekend from Thursday, May 25 – Monday, May 29

With its patron Mark Radcliffe, the popular radio broadcaster whose work over many years has included covering Glastonbury itself for the BBC, event organiser Andy Heafield said tickets were already selling well for the festival with six weeks to go

This is the first year that Big Village Small Town will be taking place, and it will feature live music gigs taking place throughout the town (or is it a village?) with Amalfi White, Melbourne Inn, The Alma Inn, Bank of Beers, The Spirit Vaults and the Assembly Rooms all hosting events

Things kick off on May 25 with Songs from the Decades from Nottingham ensemble The Burgundys, who are playing a free admission set at Amalfi White

The following few days include homegrown talents from the likes of Burgess and Walker, to singers from further afield such as Edwina Hayes, whose version of Randy Newman’s song Feels Like

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Edwina will be playing at Melbourne Assembly Rooms on May 29 and will also be hosting a song writing workshop on the same day, which will take any aspiring song-writers through all the nuts and bolts of actually getting a song to market – from contracts to writing partnerships

And Mark Radcliffe himself will be in concert at The Assembly Rooms, performing with partner DJ Paul Langley their electro homage to the sounds of Kraftwerk and the like

Mr Heafield said: “This event came about on the back of the Queen’s Jubilee Concert that we put on, which had such a good feelgood factor

“I thought: ‘Could we do something that was almost like the arts weekend but based around music?’

“It’s not just for people in Melbourne but it’s to bring people in

“I’ve had some great support from the airport, from local councillor David Muller and the Spirit Vaults

“It’s a case of venues coming together and trying to do something over that Bank Holiday weekend

“I really hope it brings people into Melbourne We’ve even got Morris dancers!

“The aim is to establish this as an annual thing ”