METAL ANNOUNCE DATE FOR TENTH VILLAGE GREEN FESTIVAL 2019

Local arts organisation, Metal are delighted to announce that the tenth edition of their much-loved family-friendly festival Village Green, will take place in Chalkwell Park, on 13 July 2019 from 11am until 9pm with ten hours of arts, music and performance, to attract all the generations of your family.

Over the summer Metal conducted research into what the community of Southend most like about Village Green and the 2019 festival is being designed with that in mind. This means that, alongside the top-quality music offer that festival-goers have come to associate with Village Green, there will be even more family-friendly activities. These will include a theatre tent, story emporium, silent disco and family cabaret stage. There will also be more alternative art for adults ranging from visual artists, to queer zines, alternative fashion, an arts and craft market with 100 local artisans, and a pop-up museum.

Among the music stages will be the ever-popular Village Green Stage and the Global Village stage, curated by Indi Sandhu, but 2019 will expand across genres and feature more jazz, more pop, Steampunk and Bluegrass.

Sean McLoughlin, the festival director, said,
"It's going to be absolutely chock full this year to celebrate the fact it's our tenth festival. And we've put a lot of time into planning it. The research undertaken this year has proven really interesting and we're reflecting the results in our programming. It was also heartening to learn that over 94% of those surveyed affirmed that festivals like Village Green were important for the cultural life of towns like Southend. These are amazing statistics that demonstrate increasing awareness amongst the local people that cultural investment brings with it a great sense of civic pride and wellbeing. Or as one respondent put it, 'Where artists go, places flourish'."

Feedback also informed this year's decision to introduce a greater number of bars to reduce queues, a monthly payment scheme for those who want to spread the cost of tickets over the year, and an Early Bird tiered ticket system.

For those on low incomes, Metal will continue to offer a limited number of free adult and teen tickets through the Southend Borough Council Advantage Card C scheme ensuring that no-one need miss out on the fun.

Metal have also revealed that Village Green: Next Generation will take place on the 12th July 2019, the day before Village Green. This is a free one-day arts festival for all local school age children, offering creative workshops, opportunities to perform onstage and awesome arts training to every school pupil in our borough! 2019 will mark the sixth Next Generation, with over 5,000 local students and teachers attending in 2017. We look forward to an even bigger and brighter day this year!

Metal are proud to announce that their media partnerships with BBC ESSEX and The Echo will continue for the thrilling tenth anniversary edition of Village Green 2019.

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat - @villagegreenfes #VG19

Tickets are no longer available for this event