Lysaght Live

When lockdown happened back in March, Lysaght closed its doors with no idea that we would still be closed to the public almost six months after the announcement. All events were cancelled, people were told to stay at home to save lives and the whole world was affected in some way. After the fights over loo roll and making sense of a strange new life each community came together. Offering support to vulnerable neighbours and clapping for the NHS on Thursdays. Placing hopeful rainbows in windows for children on walks. The musicians of the world joined forces to make money for the vulnerable using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to bring some sort of normality to our weekends. In Newport and the surrounding areas we saw virtual events like rock the lock down and Caldicot Community, working together a group on Facebook where local artists stream live music to Facebook, reading comments and playing requests for people in exchange for donations to help feed people less fortunate and support the local community.

Lysaght organised a virtual stay at home party for the VE day celebrations. We made up party bags with bunting, flags and activities for the day to encourage people to stay at home. The response for this was amazing with party bags sent to over 2000 households. Alongside the bags, we organised a virtual performance with kids disco, live music and a DJ set finishing off the night via Facebook. The engagement to that event exceeded 8000 people. With the event under our belt the hashtag letthemusicplay came about. With restrictions easing across the country and pubs and bars opening back up there was and still is no road map to get live musicians back performing. 

Lysaght has been in the heart of the Newport community for 91 years and live music has always been a part of the Lysaght tradition. People would travel from far and wide to glide across the Canadian maple wood dance floor to various live bands each week. During lockdown we have missed the sound of music and celebration from the ballroom. As event planners we could not do nothing, so Lysaght Live was born. We thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to use Lysaght as a platform to support the local artists who are unable to perform live for an audience due to restrictions. 

With two successful virtual events reaching thousands of viewers each month under our belt, we are ready to make number three even better and are hoping to secure some funds for the artists who perform. Many of these artists have not had any sort of income for the last six months and with no road map from the Government to get live music events back up and running, they are looking at many more months of the same. We are so grateful that they still show the passion to go live from their own homes and give each performance their all even at this worrying time. We appreciate that they are still working on their music behind the scenes, writing new music, recording music, and playing via live streams. We have created Lysaght Live as a platform to support these artists during this current climate and in the future we hope to help local artists get seen and booked.