Season's greetings! We wanted to drop in before the end of the year and say hello, but more specifically to say thank you for joining us in Totnes in 2022 for so many amazing performances.
We loved standalone shows with Pip Blom, The Bug Club, Holiday Ghosts, Portron Portron Lopez, Pale Blue Eyes, Pictish Trail, Bas Jan and our dear friends Metronomy early in the year.
We're still pinching ourselves that the maestro Chilly Gonzales came and blew minds in Dartington's Great Hall, launching one of our finest Sea Change weekends yet that included; Tim Burgess, Porridge Radio, Gwenno, Kathryn Joseph, Hailu Mergia, Keeley Forsyth, Katy J Pearson, caroline, Honeyglaze, Soccer96, The Lounge Society, Falle Nioke, Andrew Wasylyk, Quinquis, Melts, Lucy Gooch, Studio Electrophonique, Tara Clerkin Trio, Naima Bock, Silverbacks, Highschool, Charlotte Spiral, Fran Lobo, Hearing Aid Beige, Ditz, Simon Fisher Turner, Leo Cunningham, Butch Kassidy, Richard Norris, Heavenly Jukebox, Rough Trade Books, Wendy Erskine, Roy, Adelle Stripe, Musa Okwonga, Jude Rogers, Sophie Heawood, Kat Lister, Ali Millar, Laura Barton, Rob Young, Ian Winwood, Haseeb Iqbal, 4 Brown Girls Who Write, Will Burns, Sheena Patel, Ella Frears, Emma Warren, Kirsteen Mcnish, Flowered Up’s ‘Weekender’, The Fandangoe Kid, Babak Ganjei, Wilfrid Wood, Nick Drake’s Pink Moon, Stone Club, Justin Robertson, Moof Magazine, ‘Flashback’ Featuring Jamie Holman, Alex Zawadzki and Fergal Kinney, Soho Radio Residency, Michael Price, Elizabeth Alker, Denzil Monk and Mark Jenkin.
Not a bad turnout for a market town now is it?
Lastly, we also wanted to talk a little bit about the future. It's only a little bit, as to be totally honest with you, we just don't know what 2023 has in store. We're working now on some standalone shows that we're excited about (announcing soon), but the May weekend remains something that we are hopeful for, but just can't commit to at the moment.
As many promoters and organisers have said recently, the economic climate for live arts (especially events as intimate and independent as ours) is phenomenally challenging. Costs for every single aspect of production have rocketed. It is insane. Those same costs affect our artists and their fees have considerably (and understandably) been forced ever upwards too. We're also cognisant that it is currently the most challenging economic climate that many of us have ever experienced as consumers too, so just adding costs to the ticket price seems tone-deaf and not very aligned to our core ideals. It will be incredibly hard to balance the maths and we have real responsibility to do so.
We love Sea Change and we'll definitely return, we just don't know when and we wanted to tell you this so that you know exactly where we're at. We're going to enjoy the Winter Solstice, take it easy over the festive break and get back to work in January. When we have any news, you'll be the first to know.
Sending you all the good energy.