About

Sea Change Presents: New and exciting events in music, art, film, literature, conversation and culture.

Founded by Totnes’ award-winning Drift Record Shop and working alongside their favourite thinkers, speakers and players, each happening and iteration from the programme is memorable and unique.

Previously inhabiting a 16th-century historic guildhall, the 550 year old “blood-red” St Mary’s Church, a Civic Hall, a grade II listed modernist Lescaze masterpiece, an unoccupied 1950’s gymnasium, the 15th century Dartington Great Hall and a bucolic set of fields. Sea Change provides memorable showcases and collaborations for intimate audiences.

Always intimate, always different, always special, always rare.

27-29.05.22 | MAY 22

It’s been quite the ride since Sea Change August 2016. We built it, and you came; a town takeover with shamefully-underused venues bubbling with life for the weekend. The town embraced it, we grew, venues came and went, and you all kept coming. We navigated around weddings and markets. We dodged disaster with contractors going bust, marquees ‘going up in flames’ and cowboys disappearing into the night. Morris Men, spray painted vans, Buckfast wine Negronis, Sherwood setting off fire alarms, a huge neon sign and lots of cricket. We incorporated the magical Dartington estate, giving some of those iconic buildings the send-off they deserved. All of this before a pandemic engulfed us all. We changed the game and went online. We crowdfunded and you supported us, as did, after a fashion, the Arts Council, enabling us to bring you a glorious all-dayer in August 2021 and ultimately this euphoric weekend in Totnes town, where we dreamt it up and where we call home.

It was an absolute rush to welcome Soho Radio back to Totnes to broadcast all across the Sea Change 2022 Weekend. Based at the glorious Studio Nine Pop-up (No.9 High Street, between the Church and a gelateria) you can listen to all of the shows again, here.

28.08.21 | The One Dayer

 22-24.05.20 | The One That Didn’t Happen.

The year where we’d seemingly formed what we wanted Sea Change to be… before the world changed in a heartbeat.

Yann Tiersen, Aldous Harding, Tim Burgess, SQUID, Dry Cleaning, Working Men's Club, Shirley Collins, Hailu Mergia, Field Music, Porridge Radio, Katy J Pearson, Aoife Nessa Frances, caroline, Awesome Tapes From Africa, Melt Yourself Down, Vanishing Twin, Islet, Pozi, H. Hawkline, Daniel O'Sullivan, Keel Her, Richard Norris, 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE, Joe Muggs, Salena Godden, Penny Rimbaud, Journey > To > Nutopia, Spaceship Mark, Jeremy Deller, Johnny Banger, Will Hodgkinson, Haseeb Iqbal, Marc Isaacs, Simon Fisher Turner, Folly Group, Daisy Campbell, David Bramwell, Wendy Erskine, David Keenan, Jen Calleja, Simon Costin, Martha Sprackland, Adam Chetwood, BBC Radio 4 “Four Thought”, Max Sydney Smith, James Endeacott, Richard Phoenix, Emma Warren, Cold War Steve and Will Burns.

24-26.05.19 | Sea Change IV

Our biggest year yet with more bands, more speakers, more buildings and more hours than before.

Metronomy, The Comet is Coming, Gruff Rhys, Lubomyr Melnyk, Gazelle Twin, Bill Ryder-Jones, Maps, Black Midi, W. H. Lung, Du Blonde, Szun Waves, Rozi Plain, Laurence Pike, Anne Müller, Stewart Lee and Michael Cumming present ‘King Rocker’, Will Burns and Hannah Peel, Virginia Astley, TVAM, Black Country New Road, Pip Blom, Death & Vanilla, You Tell Me, Deep Learning, The Nightingales, Doomsquad, Sandra Kerr and John Faulkner perform the music of Bagpuss, Pale Blue Eyes, Hearing Aid Beige, Michael Clark, Lecu, and Dawn Chorus Ignites.

We also welcome appearances from Alexander Tucker, Mark Stewart and Gareth Sager of The Pop Group, Adrian Sherwood, Emma Warren, Peggy Seeger, Sam Potter, Babak Ganjei, February Montaine, Night Works, Bobby Barry, Nick Luscombe, Craig Oldham, Charlotte Newman, Martha Sprackland, Ana da Silva and Salena Godden.

24-25.08.18 | Sea Change III

Sea Change came to town for the third time with the biggest edition yet, including for the first time a trip up the road to Dartington where we opened the new Offshore stage.

The weekend started in fine fashion with the first annual Sea Change Invitational with a team of guest artists, musicians and authors battling out an incredible 136 run draw with Totnes and Dartington Cricket Club. Other new friends included live broadcasts on Soho Radio, the iconic Mute Records, Rough Trade Books and of course Dartington.

Hookworms, Gwenno, Shirley Collins, Damo Suzuki x Bo Ningen, Immix Ensemble present: Kosmologie Ancienne by Jane Weaver & Sam Wiehl, Josh T. Pearson, Cosey Fanni Tutti, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, Lost Horizons, Chris Carter, The Weather Station, Rival Consoles, Andrew Weatherall, Billy Bragg, Daniel Blumberg, Saint Leonard's Horses, Ex-Easter Island Head, Snapped Ankles, Rob Young, Andy Votel, Daniel Thorne, The Surfing Magazines, Lost Under Heaven, Hater, Hatis Noit, Raf Rundell, Virginia Wing, Dialect, Sweet Baboo, Red River Dialect, Charles Watson, Penelope Isles, James Heather, Boy Azooga, Apostille, Hilang Child, Bryde, Group Listening, Emma Warren, Laura Snapes, The Quietus, Ways With Weirds, Will Burns and Rough Trade Books presents; David Keenan, Sophy Hollington, Richard King, Babak Ganjei and James Endeacott.

Behind the event: Why we did it.

25-26.08.18 | Sea Change II

What didn't kill us made us stronger. In 2017 we did it all over again with both The Quietus and Heavenly Recordings miraculously agreeing to come back and they were joined by new friends Bella Union, Erased Tapes (both celebrating big birthdays), Fire Records, Earth Recordings and Basin' Rock. Another sell out in Totnes and the introduction of our pop up Summerisle Restaurant with Patrick Hanna. We also introduced our restored Totnes Cinema to the weekend and our good friend Gold Panda came and played a special launch night.

"Let’s hope it returns again next year, and firmly establishes itself as the best indoor summer festival on the calendar" - eFestivals

Temples, Gold Panda, Jane Weaver, Jambinai, Blanck Mass, Aldous Harding, Daniel Brandt, Ryley Walker, Julie Byrne, Nadia Reid, The Proper Ornaments, Amber Arcades, Chris Forsyth and The Solar Motel Band, Hey Colossus, LOWLY, Masayoshi Fujita, Michael Chapman, Pixx, Seamus Fogarty, Gulp, H.Hawkline, Modern Studies, Death and Vanilla, Girl Ray, Grumbling Fur, Holly Macve, Douglas Dare, The Hundredth Anniversary, ILL, Will Stratton, Jim Ghedi, Mai Mai Mai, The Orielles, Trembling Bells, Rats on Rafts, Sex Swing, Wovoka Gentle, Seahawks, Tasseomancy, Tinnedfruit, VENN, Teleplasmiste, Tourists, W. H. Lung, 'Avocet Revisited', Simon Raymonde, Will Burns & Adam Chetwood, Laura Barton, Luke Turner, Laura Snapes, Toby Morgan, Robert Raths.

25-26.0816 | Sea Change I

One hot, sleep deprived night back in 2015, we (the guys at the Drift Record Shop) decided that we'd had enough of feeling like the train station past the end of the line... we wanted to see music, art and magic in our town. So we put on our own festival.

As we kept saying... we built it, and you came.

We took over a criminally under used Civic Hall, a half refurbished industrial unit, a 15th century church and a stunning ballroom... we invited friends and they all came, including a guest DJ spot from Joe Mount of Metronomy and 'Modern Ovens', the UKs premier Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers covers band featuring BSP and members of Brakes and The Pure Conjecture.

It was magic.

British Sea Power, TOY, Bo Ningen, Richard Dawson, THROWS, Yorkston Thorne Khan, BC Camplight, Rival Consoles, Ultimate Painting, The Parrots, Matthew and Me, Alasdair Roberts, Luke Abbott, The Wave Pictures, Joan Shelley, Nathan Salsburg, Howes, Szun Waves, Rose Elinor Dougall, Guy Andrews, Teeth Of The Sea, The Drink, Red River Dialect, Holly Macve, The Pure Conjecture, BarCreeps, Bizarre Rituals, Thirty Pounds of Bone, The Membranes, Sound of Yell, Death Shanties, Sylvia Patterson, Richard King, James Endeacott, Simon Goddard, Jude Rogers.

We are delighted and very proud indeed to confirm that we were successful in our application for the Cultural Recovery Fund. Sea Change has been awarded a grant that enables us to plan for the future and bring back the event that we absolutely love. We are hugely appreciative to Arts Council England and DCMS and we are all working hard to ensure that we utilise this amazing opportunity to make a genuine cultural recovery and excitedly plan for the future.

Sea Change will be different and it will be back soon.

#LetsCreate #SeaChange #CultureRecoveryFund #HereForCulture