Kai West’s poster design for the By The Blue Bridge festival on the Arts Barge
BULL bassist, illustrator and designer Kai West and Rowan & Friends curator and frontman Rowan Evans launch By The Blue Bridge, a new three-day festival of music and art, on the Arts Barge in York tomorrow.
Moored in the Foss Basin, near the Blue Bridge, the Selby Tony is being readied for the new season of performances, buoyed by internal renovations and the construction of a proper deck house being carried out.
The festival opens with a “late-night-show-style” musical showcase hosted by Sir Dicky Benson, featuring “shorter” performances and interviews with musical acts. Taking part will be Pascallion, ish, Jarmouse, Gabbie Lord, Si Paton and The Wreckliners.
Doors at 6.45pm for the 7.20pm show in a theatre format with a 30-minute interval. Early arrival is necessary.
Saturday daytime features a selection of free workshops, running from 11am to 2pm, including Water Poetry with Becca Drake, Digital Plotting with Des Clarke and a Sound Workshop led by a collective from the Hague.
A range of musical acts continue Saturday’s proceedings from 3pm until late. Step forward Sinead Una, Rowan & Friends, Captain Starlet, Gaia Blandina, Slagroom, Des Clarke, Gabriella Hunzinger and The Rattlers.
Bull: “Reverse headline” slot on Sunday’s bill at the Arts Barge
Sunday’s theme is “Folky and Weird”, best exemplified by headliners Milkweed, who blend guitar, banjo and vocals with cut-and-paste tape extracts.
York legends Bull play a “reverse headline” slot in a stripped-back format at 2.30pm, preceded by an open-mic session from 12 noon to 2pm.
Sunday’s bill also presents Oli, We Are Hannah, Mugwort, Kirk, Big Rain In The Morning and The Caterpillars.
“The festival will be an eclectic mix of music and art that shows what the Arts Barge does best,” say Kai and Rowan. “It’s the perfect opening for the 2025 season of events at our riverside venue.”
Looking ahead, among the 2025 acts to be hosted by the Arts Barge are: June 26, Creekbed Carter Hogan, trans folk musician from the USA; August 6, Ryosuke Kiyasu, Japanese experimental solo snare performer; September 12, A Pinch of Salt, experimental music night with Semay Wu, and September 13, Bojocky, London five-piece indie-folk.
The Arts Barge will stage a ‘Short Fringe’ week of theatre events this summer too; more details to be announced soon. Watch this space.
Tickets to attend all three days of By The Blue Bridge cost £15 (£16.50 with booking fee) or £8 (£8.80) for any of the three days at https://wegottickets.com/f/13779/.