The first Tour De Music Festival celebrating the global influences on Leicester's thriving music scene has been set up by students from De Montfort University (DMU).
The four day world music festival will include everything from reggae and rock to traditional Chinese folk and K-Pop from Korea.
It has been organised by third year DMU students as a project for their BA Arts and Festivals Management degree. They have done everything from book bands for venues around the city to print posters and sell tickets. They have also signed up festival sponsor Victoria Hall Student Accommodation.
The festival runs from Monday 7 March to Thursday 10 March and will take place at venues Firebug, in Horsefair Street, Duffy’s, in Pocklington’s Walk, The Y Theatre, in East Street, The Musician, in Clyde Street, and Sumo, in Braunstone Gate. People can buy wristbands priced at £17 or pay between £6 and £8 on the door for individual events. The event at The Musician is priced separately at £5 in advance.
Student Sabaa Tariq, who has taken up the role of Head of Marketing for the festival, said: “We were set a project to come up with our own festival from scratch. Although we all decided we wanted to put on a music festival, we knew there were already a few in Leicester due to the thriving music scene so we wanted to do something a little different.
“Leicester is so diverse we thought it would be great to bring lots of different cultures and their musical forms together under the banner Tour De Music.
“Our team itself is multicultural – we have people of Chinese, Pakistani, Caribbean, Welsh and English origin all contributing.
“We are confident there has never been anything like this in Leicester that brings lots of cultures together in this way.
“So what we are planning is a fun-filled four day festival that gives people the chance to not only listen to something they like but to also try out other musical experiences too.
“I’m really excited that we have something like K-Pop on one night and reggae the next.”
The festival is also running workshops during the festival at the DMU Campus Centre in Irish dancing, Chinese dance and African drumming. One of the acts appearing during the festival is from DMU – the DMU Steppers dance troupe.
Sabaa added: “I have absolutely loved my course and the fact we have been set a challenge to create a festival is brilliant. I was a bit confused about what I wanted to do after uni but this has convinced me I want to go into event organising and marketing.”
Posted on Thursday 11 February 2016