Free festival for unsigned talent to hit Shoreditch Park

Bayo Alaba (Image: Archant)

The two-day event which has been four years in the making, will showcase 150 of the city’s brightest unsigned talents in indie, rock, jazz, folk, R&B, reggae, classical and electronic genres on four different stages.

Bayo Alaba came up with the idea following on from the success of the Unsigned London stage at various events, like the Rivington Street Festival he organises.

He said: “We believe in supporting unsigned talent that doesn’t get the mainstream recognition it deserves.

“There are lots of venues closing down and we feel there isn’t enough opportunity for these acts to showcase their talent.

“For some reason the music industry doesn’t acknowledge real creative live talent. It’s difficult for these acts to get played, you have play lists and it’s a big hurdle for these acts to get over because you need to be signed.

“You see barriers impeding their progress, being stopped from actually broadcasting their talent to the wider public, and you know the public would jump on them if they saw them live or heard them on the radio.”

He continued: “We were taken aback by just how much energy was created when we had an unsigned platform, from the social media reaction, from the audience at the event watching these bands perform, and the artists themselves really got behind promoting themselves, tweeting out and supporting other acts who were in the line up.

“We thought, wow there is something here.”

He hopes it will help the bands to become as established as they can be and for the wider community to understand “authentic, real bands” as opposed to industry created bands.

“There’s a voice we so desperately want to be heard, we want change and a freshness to the offer,” said Mr Alaba.

The event takes place in Shoreditch Park, off New North Road, on Saturday, July 4 from noon to 9pm and and Sunday, July 5 from noon to 7pm.