This weekend we are celebrating the happy synergy between music and the spoken and written word with a new partnership with The Sage Gateshead. Over a long weekend developed with festival curator Ian McMillan, we will be presenting new work from a range of writers and musicians, hosting concerts from some of the world’s greatest songwriters, examining the linguistic possibilities of rap, folk and grime, and debating how best to write about music with a panel of critics and publishers.

The festival explodes into the public areas of The Sage with the premiere of a newly commissioned multimedia piece, Homing In.

Festival highlights


On Saturday 15 May, our Folken Word afternoon will be focusing on the connections between folk music and words, both through existing collaborations with the pairings of concertina maestro Alistair Anderson with poet Katrina Porteous, and Folkworks artistic director Kathryn Tickell with harpist Corrina Hewat, and through new projects. Three groups of students from Newcastle University’s degree course in folk and traditional music present new arrangements of folk tales and we will be premiering three new Words & Music Festival commissions:

Musician Dan Walsh and prose writer Amy Mackelden have written two pieces which combine folk music and the spoken word to examine the relationships we have with each other, ourselves and with inanimate objects, be it online or off-, as part of an audience, on stage, or as an ongoing dialogue with people we’ve never even met.

When the Orchard Withers It Will Be Spring is a contemporary retelling of the Lambton Worm legend in the context of war, with a libretto by poet Carolyn Jess-Cooke and music composed by Peter Tickell.

In The New Mountain, a new work by poet Ira Lightman and musician Kate Young , residents of Newcastle wake up to find that the city has turned into a mountain with a mysterious multi-coloured cloud hanging over it. The population set out to climb, uncertain what they will find at the top. With guest narration from Ian McMillan.

Sunday 16 May sees the premiere of our festival commission: Homing In, by Ian McMillan and Luke Carver Goss. This multimedia celebration features a 200-strong ensemble of singers and musicians and is inspired by the region’s traditions of keeping and racing pigeons. The show also takes full advantage of the theatrical possibilities of The Sage’s spectacular concourse.

Later that afternoon, you can join an esteemed panel to consider the small print of writing about music. Chaired by Ian McMillan, the panel includes David Hepworth of The Word magazine; Ivan Hewett, chief music critic for the Telegraph; writer and TV producer Chris Phipps; Claire Dupree of Narc magazine; and Adam Krims, professor of music analysis at the University of Nottingham.

If you’re itching to write about music yourself, check out the festival’s new blog at www.wordsandmusicreview.com where you can bag free tickets for concerts at The Sage in exchange for a written review.

For the full programme of festival events, including how to book, see www.wordsandmusicnortheast.com.