Christmas Woo Fest 2022
Woo Fest Christmas Party raises £1,600 for St Richard’s Hospice!
We had a superb Friday evening of incredible live music with lots of wonderful people in attendance at The Marrs Bar- thanks for all your support!
The superb Andy Bennett wowed the eager crowd with his fine mix of well crafted originals and well known tracks, The Cuginis smashed the house down with their superb ska classics. Nadi Hafren just go from strength to strength and completely mesmerised everyone in the venue, Immy & The Boatman were superb as always and brought a fantastic collection of musicians on the stage. Closing the evening we had the amazing Drifta Music featuring some very welcome guests and a great guest appearance from the lead guitar maestro himself, Danny Gee! We also had a smattering of early Christmas tunes from the father of Worcester live music Brian Marrs from The Marrs Bar and the wonderful Erica Jean and Andy Bennett.
We couldn’t ask for a better celebration of music, thank you to all the wonderful musicians who very kindly supported our fundraising.
Christmas Woo Fest 2021
Oh what a night!
Right in the middle of a surge of Covid caused by the marvel-like sounding Omicron a committed crowd of music lovers partied with us at the Marrs Bar in Worcester
A massive shout out to the fabulous Marrs Bar and all our acts who were determined to put on a good show and they certainly delivered. We were also thrilled to welcome lots of people to the night and together we raised a great £900.
Music really is the tonic and the talent in that room that night was incredible
A Christmas Woo - 2019
A Christmas Woo Raises £1,644.20 for St Richards Hospice!
In what was an incredible Sunday night of live music and seasonal merriment we absolutely smashed our fundraising target at the Marrs Bar thanks to a full house, our sponsors - Lowes Garage and the Marrs bar for hosting the event and running the sound.
The night started with a queue outside the Marrs bar with lots of very prompt supporters wanting to see all of the great musicians on the bill. Ruben Seabright kicked off the acoustic part of the evening off with his awesome mix of grunge classics and some really well written tunes, finishing with his fantastic ode to a local celebrity publican, Mad Pierre.
Kringo Blue was up next and thanks to the brotherhood of Worcester musicians managed to get his guitar picked up from another City centre pub (where it was previously locked in) just in time! Kringo was awesome with his fantastic finger plucking and velvet-smooth vocals and we particularly enjoyed his fantastic creation; Heart and Soul and his later combination with Jake Marsh on harmonica. Just as Kringo finished we got an immediate cameo appearance from his mate who now resides in Finland, Stephen L Wright aka Nobby, and what a cameo it was - a superb Irish tune played with great skill and we hope to see Nobby play again very soon!
Immy and the Boatman rounded off the acoustic session and despite some now very well-watered customers they transfixed the crowd with absolutely stunning vocals and fine combinations of originals and covers as you have never heard before, it was a beautiful set from Floyd to Massive Attack and even included a Fairport Convention number which was fantastic
Next up we were joined by special guests Junction 7 who raised the roof with their high energy covers and incredible vocals - wow Jess can really belt them out - it was a fantastic performance and really grateful that the guys could join us at such late notice as special guests.
The start of the next set was an unexpected visual delight as Chimp on a Bike entered the stage dressed as an extremely round Santa, Olaf the lead-guitar snowman and 2 fetching elves much to the amusement of our resident compere Spencer Lowe. However if there was ever such an example as “don’t judge a book by its cover” then this was certainly it - the boys smashed it playing a fantastic rock-filled slot with a particular highlight being their version of Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell.
No sooner had Chimp on a Bike finished the gaffer himself Brian Maher (Marzy) entered the stage with Junction 7’s lead singer Jess to treat us to a cracking version of the Pogue's Fairy-tale of New York complete with authentic Irish accents and a huge amount of audience participation. It is officially the start of Christmas when Marzy plays that one.
Finally, one of Woo Fest’s biggest supporters, Arcadia Roots (minus Tom - we missed you mate) treated us to an incredible set of now well-known Arcadia tracks, the odd bit of Bob Marley and some new tracks from their upcoming album. The dancefloor was packed and Arcadia wowed the crowd with their usual trance rhythms, meaningful lyrics and exceptional musicianship
All-in-all a phenomenal night with so many talented people playing to help raise money for St Richards via Woo Fest and a fantastic bunch of customers that any venue would be happy to host.