Having raised more than £3,500 for causes including NHS Charities Together, Refuge and Musicians Against Homelessness, we’re back with another Balcony Festival on Saturday, collaborating with our friends in the UK DIY music scene to bring you top quality music performed from the lockdown for a worthwhile cause, and this week we’re raising money for The Trussell Trust. 

You can make a donation here:  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/balconyfestival4

You can watch the show on Saturday from 1pm right here on GigSlutz

Get full details and updates on our Facebook page.

Watch the previous shows on our Youtube channel.

Full Line Up:

Lara Smiles – Gigslutz Stage
Foundlings – The Bechdel Sound Test Stage
Rosehip Teahouse – God Is In The TV Stage
Jenny Moore (Charismatic Megafauna) – Joyzine Stage
Nuha Ruby Ra – Louder Than War Stage
Hurtling – Loud Women Stage
Foxpalmer – Quarantini Stage
Keel Her – Sonic Tonic Stage
The DSM IV – The Zine UK Stage
Berries – Crocroland Stage
Nadia Sheikh – Benumu Stage

Balcony is an online music festival in aid of The Trussell Trust, who support a nationwide network of food banks and together provide emergency food; support to people locked in poverty and campaign for long-term change. The show will be free to view via a number of established independent UK blogs who have collaborated to create this event. Viewers are encouraged to make a donation to the charity if they can afford to do so.

Presented by Louise Schofield (BBC Sesh), the festival will include exclusive live performances by bands and artists selected by Joyzine, Louderthanwar, LOUD WOMEN, God Is In The TV Zine., GigSlutz, The Zine UK, Benumu, Crocroland, Sonic Tonic, The Bechdel Sound Test and Quarantini – Live Virtual Bar.

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Balcony Online Music Festival is named in tribute to the Italian musicians who have been singing from their windows through their Coronavirus lockdown.

> THE BANDS

Nadia Sheikh
Nadia Sheikh is an independent half British/Spanish indie/pop rock artist based in London. 2020 started with a bang with Nadia completing a European and UK tour supporting Stereophnics and releasing her new EP ‘Everybody Hears but No One’s Listening’. Expect quirky melodies and catchy choruses that stick with you. “She’s had a fantastic run of singles and has such a great live reputation,” John Kennedy, Radio X

Hurtling
An alt-rock trio – in the guise today of Jen Macro, solo. Hurtling have worked with a number of respected artists including My Bloody Valentine, Graham Coxon, Jim Bob (Carter USM), The Monochrome Set, Chris T-T, Shonen Knife, Kath Bloom and Jon Fine (Bitch Magnet). They have built upon their collective musical experiences to create the dark hued, melodious, cinematic yet hook laden sound of Hurtling.

THE DSM IV
Trancelike Hysteria of The Dance-Roc Persuasions

Keel Her  is Winchester’s Rose Keeler-Schaffeler, releasing tracks via the former Charlatan Tim Burgess’ O Genesis label, expect delicate and a pure quality to the vocals – as wistful melodies drift you away.

BERRIES
Berries sound has been described as riff driven gnarly, frenetic, briding the gap between garage rock, grunge, sugary pop and everything inbetween. Holly plays as part of the Alt/Rock trio and will be performing some of their songs stripped back.

Foundlings
Pitched between infectiously melancholic indie-pop and angular, post-punk inflected stomps, Foundlings are; Amber, Ben, Matthew and Oliver. The band’s first single, ‘Misery’, was championed by Steve Lamacq on his BBC 6 Music show and selected for the BBC 6 Introducing Playlist by Tom Robinson. Lamacq described the band’s sound as, “breathless indie-pop.”

Lara Smiles
Lara picks and mixes genres like a tuck shop confectionary to create this post-modern sound, fusing a sparkling array of beats that merge with intensely driven & spiralling guitars. She creates layers of delightful, arresting and colourful alt rock ranging from electro to industrial. “industro-pop alchemist” NME

> THE CHARITY
(Text from https://www.trusselltrust.org)

We support a nationwide network of food banks and together we provide emergency food and support to people locked in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.

There are more than 1,200 food bank centres in our network, we estimate this is about two thirds of the food banks in the UK. We support these food banks to provide a minimum of three days’ nutritionally-balanced emergency food to people who have been referred in crisis (for instance by advice agencies, GPs, social services and schools), as well as support to help people resolve the crises they face.

More than 14 million people in the UK live below the poverty line. We know it takes more than food to end hunger. So we bring together the experiences of food banks in our network, and their communities, to challenge the structural economic issues that lock people in poverty, and campaign for change to end the need for food banks in the UK.