Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet

Super excited for this gig featuring one of the greatest voices on the planet PLUS Emsworth’s own Biff Roxby on trombone!

🎶 Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet 🎵
🗓️ Friday 20th November
📍 Westbourne Community Hall (AKA Westbourne Club), River Street, Westbourne, West Sussex, PO10 8TG
🕗 Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm show, unreserved seating
🍷 Licensed bar serving Langham Brewery 🍻

🎫 Tickets on sale now at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, at The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne Village, & online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

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Rioghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet move with ease and confidence between swampy jazz, raucous brass, fractured funk, blues balladry, and gorgeous folkloric textures.  Connolly’s powerhouse vocals lead the charge, blending mischief, protest and vulnerability into something fiercely human and utterly live. Honeyfeet holds all of this together with a groove and a commitment to musical freedom. The lineup consists of Lorien Garth Edwards on bass, Ellis Davies on guitar, John Ellis on keyboards, Biff Roxby on brass, and Phill Howley on drums, forming a fluid and fearless musical unit.

At the heart of Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet is the indomitable Ríoghnach Connolly, whose voice is equal parts fierce, tender and fearless, connecting ancestral song traditions with contemporary storytelling. She has won the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award for Best Folk Singer and BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer of the Year. In early 2025, she joined Annie Lennox on stage at the Royal Albert Hall for “Sisters: Annie Lennox and Friends,” a landmark concert that raised funds for The Circle, Lennox’s global feminist organisation. Sharing the bill with artists including Celeste and Nadine Shah, Connolly brought her singular presence to a night that celebrated the transformative power of music and collective voice.

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As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, & soft drinks

WemsFest is an entirely volunteer-run community interest company. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested into our local community, delivering musical workshops in local schools each October in celebration of Black History Month

This year our charity bucket on the bar is supporting relationships & sex education in local schools, delivered by Options Chichester – please do help us support this important work

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance at adwesmfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Irrelevant Elephant & DJ Mark Covell (Special BBC Children In Need event)

Irrelevant Elephant bring their funky dance tunes back to Westbourne following their hugely successful debut last year.  DJ Mark Covell will, again, take over where they leave off with a melange of music to keep the dance floor filled until midnight as ‘Disco for Oldies’ takes over.

10% of ticket income and all donations go to BBC Children In Need.
Late bar (no admission after 10pm)

Irrelevant Elephant are a 7-piece jazz funk outfit from our hometown!  Featuring a threepiece horn section, keyboards, guitar, drums & bass, offering a selection of jazz, Latin & funk styles, from Donny Hathaway to Brother Strut, their sound is mostly up-tempo & definitely danceable.

 

DJ Mark Covell is another local whom we are delighted to welcome back to WemsFest, to ensure the lights are flashing, the dance floor is filled, and the party is on.  Mark brings an equal passion to DJing as he did to winning an Olympic sailing medal or racing in The America’s Cup.  He is as adept at making the dance floor move as he is dynamically DJing and commentating on sporting events around the world.  

 

Licensed bar helps support WemsFest – As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.  All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Please park considerately.

Maroon Town

Maroon Town, whose name is taken from a remote upland community in Jamaica formed by escaped slaves, burst onto the scene in the late 80s with their pioneering fusion of rap, dub, breakbeat, jazz and funk.  They have played our WemsFest stage multiple times and every year the audience is left wanting more!

When the London-based multi-racial 8-piece first started out 30 years ago, they were the first ska band to have begun mixing ska and reggae with rap, funk and Latin/cumbia to produce a fresh new world music sound with conscious and uplifting lyrics.  Their first album and singles were produced by John Bradbury of the Specials.  These recordings propelled the group to get the attention of the international music community and led to extensive touring in Europe, Japan and South America.

A long-standing relationship with the British Council saw Maroon Town perform in over 15 countries from Kosovo to Tajikistan and from Brazil to Brunei playing in theatres, festivals, schools, community centres, universities and even prisons. Their songs have been synched to major Hollywood films and they continue to provide a brilliant stage show!

Still at the cutting edge of creativity their sixth and latest album ‘Freedom Call’ released on the Spanish label ‘Brixton Records’ in 2018 blends conscious reggae, jazz, Big beat ska as well as an up-tempo ska collaboration with renowned Basque Country reggae, rock and ska singer Fermin Muguruza. (Spain, particularly Catalonia and the Basque Country has long been a touring destination for the band)

In 2018 Maroon Town played at Skabour (UK), Boom Town, Freedom Sounds Festival and Querbeat (Germany), the London International Ska Festival and at Foc a la Feixa (Spain – June 23rd) and many other venues. Each month the band run a club night at the legendary Troubadour in London with net profits going to the Alpha Boys School in Jamaica.

The result is a unique musical blend that has hooked fans and audiences from all over the world for over 30 years.

Licensed bar helps support WemsFest – As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.  All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Please park considerately.