Blues festival attracts hundreds
10:23am Sun Sep 13, 2009
The first Newark blues festival attracted hundreds of people this weekend, where they could see both musicians of the future and well-known artists.
Last night, the Blues at the Castle event sold out, with 650 people buying tickets to see groups including King King and the Oli Brown Band.
The event was the idea of Mr Darren Pointing (42) of Dale Way, Fernwood. His son, Joe Pointing (16) helped organise the event and said he was very impressed with how it had gone.
Joe said: "Everybody was enjoying themselves and I think for the first year it couldn’t have gone better."
Mr Darren Pointing said: "It has really come together. I think blues music appeals to lots of people and it is great for the youngsters to get involved and get together too."
From 11am-2pm on Saturday around ten youngsters attended workshops in the Castle grounds concentrate on the basics of blues music, from chord progressions to soloing and improvisation. There were workshops for saxophones, piano, drums, harmonica, vocals and guitars.
Harvey Duddles (12) of Hawton Road, Newark, went along to take part in the drum workshop. He has been playing the instrument for over a year.
Harvey said: "I have always been interested in music since I was little and my favourite instrument is the drums so I started learning. It is the first time I have played blues music but I like all types of music."
As part of the Blues - the next generation session in the afternoon, three young bands performed on the main stage to around 100 people.
Erosion, a five piece band formed by pupils who were at Norwell Primary School and Sutton-on-Trent Primary School last year, took to the stage and got a great reception.
