A NEW community music and arts festival has been proposed for Melksham to help give a platform for local homegrown talent to shine.
If supported by Melksham Town Council, the Melksham ArtBeats Festival would comprise of four weekend mini festivals a year, including contemporary/classical music concerts, art exhibitions in the Assembly Hall, with ‘hands-on’ workshops, and music from local bands and artists.
The new festival has been proposed by mayor cllr Jon Hubbard and cllr Saffi Rabey.
“There are so many local bands that are amazing,” said cllr Hubbard speaking to Melksham News, “we have this wonderful local talent in the town and nobody knows about it – so we want to provide a platform for them to be discovered.
“There’s not much of an opportunity for local artistic talent to really shine – and this will hopefully give them an opportunity to do that.
“There would be two evenings of music, and two days of art activities and exhibitions, all hosted in the Assembly Hall. For the first evening there would be a concert of more contemporary music – this could be classical, a choir, jazz, something of that ilk. The second evening would be a concert featuring local bands.
“This is everything that our Assembly Hall should be used for, as a space to celebrate, encourage and grow local talent. Let’s use this building to help promote and support them!”
It is expected that early in the new year the town council will discuss the proposal to set up a Melksham ArtBeats Festival Committee to deliver the festival.
