Who will be playing at Wycombe's Lockdown Music Festival?

The Bucks Lockdown Music Festival, which is in support of Mind, will take place at the Wycombe Arts Centre on Saturday, May 21.

It will see musicians and acts such as Soraya Ray, Shannon Juneja, George Jack, Dhol Collective and DJ Sebastian K take to the stage to not only share their talents but also raise awareness regarding mental health issues.

The event has been organised by Neil Brown, a mental health sufferer himself, who in April 2020 created the weekly virtual event where musicians got ‘together’ to share their skills in what was a very unprecedented time for the country.

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Speaking to the Free Press, Neil said: “It started as a small show from people I know who are local performers each playing 20 to 30 minutes sets from 7pm onwards on a Saturday evening via Facebook live.

“As it progressed, we got more and more viewers and more artists wanting to play.

“And as a result, I continued to present the show every week for 12 weeks and then continued fortnightly after that.

“Overall during lockdown we put on 35 shows with 60+ different artists and 120+ performances.”

The festival poster

On the festival itself, Neil explained: “The idea of the festival was to promote community spirit and support local live music will simultaneously raising money for Mind.

“We raised over £750 and hopefully raised awareness and provided a platform for local artists to get their music out there when they couldn't play real-life gigs.”

This comes after Neil was sectioned under the Mental Health Act where he spent two weeks in a mental health institution.

It was during this period that he was diagnosed with firstly’ psychosis and mania’, before another assessment revealed he had bipolar disorder.

He hopes the show on May 21 will bring people together.

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He continued: “I am now a peer support worker working for Chiltern Mental Health.

“My role is to be a bridge between clinicians and service users.

“I can provide insight into how it really feels for service users and also use my experience to support, empathise and validate with service users.”

Neil also confirmed that they will be hosting a gig every fourth Friday at Wycombe Arts Centre from June 24 onwards.

For more information on the festival, click on the following links:

• www.facebook.com/BucksLockdownMusicFest/

• www.facebook.com/events/s/bucks-lockdown-music-fest-live/646322719969151/

• www.instagram.com/buckslockdownmusicfest

• www.tickettailor.com/events/bucksmusicfestivalsbyentertainmentjam/668749

If you have been affected by the article, please visit www.bucksmind.org.uk or www.samaritans.org.