“We have DJ’s across a range of genres. Count Skylarkin, Deep Cover (Rinse), Mr Bacon (Musical Medicine), DJ Animal to name but a few. We have acoustic artists playing a variety of instruments, original music and covers.
“You can try yoga classes, guided meditation, piano karaoke, a beatbox workshop, a painting workshop, fitness classes. There’s loads going on,” Lockdown Festival organiser Lorraine Baker explains, as she decks out her garden in Oxford ready to host the Lockdown Festival “Jo Whiley styley,” this weekend.
there is a DJ streaming from Bulgaria, a singer from Portugal, a poet/musician from California, a sax player from Columbia and a band from Chile
Yup, it’s all going on at the Lockdown Festival this weekend where audiences can ‘attend’ the event, from the comfort of their own homes, choose from the set list of 89 acts, and click on which ‘stage’ live stream they want.
The brainchild of Oxford lass Lorraine Baker, Lockdown aims to to raise money for two great charities – Oxfordshire Mind and NHS Charities Together – as well as entertaining us during the current pandemic.
“Yes it’s Oxford based but we hope Lockdown’s remit spreads much further than that. It’s inclusive of anyone.”
“I’m encouraging anyone who joins a set to get dressed up in festival wear and decorate their house/garden a bit for the stream to create a festival vibe,” she says, “for the people at home to get into the festival spirit.”
It’s taken weeks to organise but Lorraine says: “Being on Lockdown has giving me a lot of spare time and as so many festivals are being cancelled I wanted to do the best I could to create a festival vibe weekend for people from the comfort of their own homes.
“I’m doing it to spread some love and put smiles on peoples faces. I started it for friends and family but would love it to reach as many people as possible.” (see set lists at bottom)
To give you an idea of what to look forward to, and how ambitious the festival is, amongst others there is a DJ streaming from Bulgaria, a singer from Portugal, a poet/musician from California, a sax player from Columbia, and a band from Chile so Lockdown Festival has reached far and wide.
Highlights include:
- Tahaty is going to be giving a belly dancing workshop
- Count Skylarkin – has been making people move since the 90s. One of the hardest-working, quickest-mixing, all-vinyl, reggae, rocksteady, ska, dancehall, dynamite DJs around. El Niño is a collective of DJs who specialise in global dancefloor sounds ranging from East African highlife/benga/soukous, Afrobeat, Vintage cumbia/calypso/mambo from South America, tropical discotheque from the Caribbean islands and much much more!
- Nisreen is going to be live streaming from Cape Town (South Africa) and will be giving us a guided meditation to help you calm the mind and alleviate stress using your breath and reconnecting to your heart space
- Lana from Love Art Workshops will be giving an art class in collage. Make a festival colourful version of yourself. She will be using acrylic oil paint, different collage materials and sharpies
- Bronwyn Leonard will be performing a live set of her upcoming release ‘Under Her Skin’ and a few of her own songs with some upbeat acoustic covers for everyone to dance and sing along with at home.
- Catgod – https://www.facebook.com/Catgodmusic – The group is a five piece band centred around brother-sister duo Robin and Cat. They’re playing the Lockdown festival as a 3 piece. Together they create ‘effortlessly charming, folk-inspired songs’. Single ‘Heartbeat in my Hand’ was premiered by The Line of Best Fit, who described it as ‘a joyously breathtaking listen, pinned down by soft piano melodies and delicate harmonies’. Several singles have been aired by Tom Robinson (BBC Radio 6) and Don Letts (BBC Radio 6). Single Someone Love, was featured by Lauren Lavern (BBC Radio 1) as her ‘Headphones Moment’. She said ‘I heard this and loved it’.
People ‘attending’ the event, from the comfort of their own homes, will be able to chose from the set list and click on which ‘stage’ live stream that they want. Each stream will have the festival logo on and a live comment facility to get people interacting with each other.
Anything anyone posts with the hashtag #lockdownfestival2020 will show up on the website, which will help choose winners for the competitions, with some great prizes being donated by local businesses.
So how is Lorraine feeling? “All the emotions,” she laughs. “I’ve put so much work into it so I really want it to work.
“It’s not ticketed, it’s all free, with JustGiving links on all the stages for people to donate, so we just want people to get involved and spread the word.
NHS: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LockdownfestivalNHS
Oxfordshire Mind: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/LockdownfestivalOxfordshireMind
“Yes it’s Oxford based but we hope Lockdown’s remit spreads much further than that. It’s inclusive of anyone,” Lorraine adds.
Lockdown Festival runs on May 2-3 from 11am Saturday until late on Sunday. www.lockdownfestival.co.uk
Here is the Saturday set list:
And Sunday’s:
