Thank you for sponsoring bursary places for young musicians at the Belfast Summer School of Traditional Music

Remember back in April I said that any donations made to The Session that month would be put toward sponsoring places for young musicians to attend workshops at Belfast Trad Fest who otherwise wouldn’t be able to:

https://thesession.org/discussions/49170

Well, you really came through! You contributed an absolutely *fantastic* £3000!

Belfast Trad Fest happened the week before last, and I was there. It was an absolutely wonderful event. There were over 600 students in the workshops. Of those, around 60 were there thanks to bursary sponsorships. A chunk of those were thanks to you.

It was fantastic to see so many young people spending the work learning from the absolute best!

Here’s a photo of me trying not to look awkward with some of the students:

https://thesession.s3.amazonaws.com/images/belfasttradfest2024.jpg

The whole event was really, really well organised, and the organisers were very grateful for the support from thesession.org —so thank you from them as well!

The other activities were great too: sessions, concerts, and more. I highly recommend making Belfast Trad Fest part of your Summer schedule if you can. I had a great time.

Anyway, I wanted to say thank you very much to everyone who contributed during the April fundraiser and to ask:

1. Should we do it again next year? and
2. Are there any similar sponsorship schemes that you know of to help young people get a start in the music?

Bravo, Jeremy (and all donors on this site), for doing this! It would be lovely to have something like that every year.

Another sponsorship opportunity would be a youth scholarship for Celtic Week at The Swannanoa Gathering, (just outside Asheville, North Carolina, USA), which has an established youth scholarship program. More info here: https://swangathering.com/about-us/youth-scholarships/

Sounds as if everyone had a fantastic time, and I’d be happy to chip in if you do it again next year.

Sounds like a marvellous idea. I didn’t contribute this year (must have missed the post) but definitely will if it’s done again. The only way that any musical form can survive is to get as wide as possible involvement from the younger up-and-coming generation.

Well done for thinking of this Jeremy. I will be happy to chip in again next year. And I agree about Belfast Tradfest from our winter experience. Must try to get to the summer one in future.