North Curry Music Festival June 2026
Very pleased that the first donation by the Vickery Fund is to the North Curry musical festival.
The festival that was held over the weekend of Thursday 18th June to Sunday 21 June 2026
The North Curry Musical Festival provided a platform for 10 amateur groups to perform (Time to Spare guitar group, NC Ukulele Orchestra, Big Noise Community Street Band, Sounds Invaders childrens band, Jazzical Swing, The Tone Big Band, NC Village Orchestra, NC Village Choir, children from NC Primary School and Stoke St Gregory primary School) – involving roughly 100 musicians.
The aim was to bring the community together around music and giving as many as possible a taste of live music - the Sunday event with party band Rooster was part of that, a free event to attract all ages (including those who otherwise could not afford or could not access live music elsewhere).
A little detail
The Ukulele Orchestra of North Curry was one of the local amateur groups that was given platform to at the North Curry Music Festival.
They performed some songs then invited the audience to nominate some songs for them to play from their set list and finally invited anyone in the audience to have a go and join them in playing some simple chords of a couple of songs on spare ukuleles they had brought along.
About 15 people took up the offer and the Ukulele Orchestra are delighted to now welcome 3 new orchestra members (to add to their current 12) as a result.
For me this seemed very appropriate location for the first grant as the Vickery family farmed in the area some 100 years ago.
Community Opera (Dido and Aeneas) Plus musical workshop Bruton June 2026
This was a collaborative project that encouraged inter-generational cohesion and understanding and supported people's sense of belonging in their community. They also reached beyond choir members and created an open invitation for all local adults and teenagers to attend and sing in the performance for free.
The Echoing Air is a new music ensemble based in Bruton, Somerset. It was set up with the intention of bringing high quality music to an area that is not necessarily catered for by major centres of culture. It was founded both to advance the understanding and appreciation of music and to advance social inclusion, through the creation and promotion of performances, exhibitions, workshops and other activities in particular for those typically excluded by geographical and socio-economic factors.
Somerstock Festival Somerton July 2026
The second recipient of a grant from the Vickery Fund
It was felt that although this event was slightly outside of the funds guidelines that it does offer a good performance opportunity for local amateur musicians
Actiontrack Taunton July 2026
Made possible by support from Reuben Katz, Taunton Town Council and the Vickery Fund.
Yamaha G2 grand piano that significantly upgrades our offer to local musicians, music teachers, students and ensembles. Our commitment at Actiontrack is and has always been to support and develop music making for individuals and communities through the highest level of resources, advice and expertise possible. This instrument fits right into that pocket and we are thrilled to be able to bring in into our studio in Taunton for people at all stages of their musical pathway to use. It has been in place under a month and has already been played by a large number of players across many genres for rehearsals, recordings and workshops.
