Leicester’s Echo Factory offers students a chance to gain the highest level of professional music training and industry knowledge available. This year, a number of students have joined together to create Echo Fest, where they’re combining the students’ talents with the city’s local music venues and businesses. We caught up with Chloe Costello to find out more ahead of next week’s event.
What is Echo Fest and how did it come about?
Echo Fest first came about when students at Echo Factory were hoping to work with local businesses and artists in the city and combine the talents into a week of events. There were many ideas passed around as to how we could operate it, we chose to put the existing events in the city under the umbrella of Echo Fest and market it in this way.
What are some of the highlights of the events coming up?
We are really excited about all of the events throughout the week, particularly Alex Gardeners EP launch, he has been working alongside Echo Factory student and local artist Joe Doyle throughout the creative process and is keen to display his hard work through his live performance.
How important is Echo Factory’s work for the local music scene?
Echo Factory has been running the degree courses in both Music Performance & Music business for three years now, with the first year of students set to graduate in September. Students from both courses are able to work closely alongside each other within Echo Factory, we encourage this as it gives the students the chance to experience as closely as possible the relationship between artists and the business team. A lot of students at Echo Factory on both the performance and business course are working musicians in Leicester and the development of the local music scene is very exciting for us.
Who are some of your favourite artists on the local scene at the moment?
Leicester has such a lively and diverse local music scene and we are always discovering new artist around the city. We recently witnessed local Leicester group Dark Bloom’s debut headline performance at The Shed, it was a night of local music with two of the support acts, Her Burden and Revival both having close connections to the city. Front man Sulley Archer was previously member of The World Can Wait and we can see from the show he put on that he has grown and developed his talent into what we would expect is going to be a rising success with Dark Bloom.
Is the plan for Echo Fest to become an annual event?
Echo Fest will be, after the event, evaluating the success of the week and any possible changes and developments that could be beneficial to future success. The hope for us is to work with the students in Echo Factory in order to develop the festival and have it as an event that students can run and be part of for years to come.
Where can people buy tickets and find out more?
For those interested in tickets to the event they are able to email [email protected] with their name and they will receive a digital token which when presented at any of the events will enable them to a range of discounts on entry and drinks.
Echo Fest takes place across Leicester from 22 – 28 April at The Cookie, The Shed and The Soundhouse.