The Bridgewater Hall is hosting a dementia-friendly music festival this Friday

The Bridgewater Hall hosts a unique dementia-friendly music festival this Friday, involving 30 organisations offering support to people who are living with dementia across the County.

The festival has been curated over the last year in close collaboration with over 150 local people who are living with a dementia diagnosis.

The event features the world premiere of new music composed by people living with dementia and performed by them alongside an ensemble of musicians from The Hallé and Manchester Camerata orchestras, So Many Beauties Intercultural Collective and students from the Royal Northern College Music.

The So Many Beauties project was established in 2016 by local musician Holly Marland who is passionate about working creatively with people living with dementia, bringing their voices to the fore and challenging some of the stigmas that surround the diagnosis.

With the support of Arts Council England, So Many Beauties has engaged with over 1000 people living with dementia and offered specialised training to over 50 professional musicians and students in Greater Manchester.

Holly Marland said: “It’s an enormous privilege to spend time with people living with dementia from diverse communities. Society tends to forget that these wonderful people have so much wit, wisdom and creative energy despite the different diseases affecting their brains. There’s been so much love and laughter in the making of this festival and I really hope people will go home with a sense of positivity about living well with dementia.”

Andrew Nesbitt, Community Engagement Manager from The Bridgewater Hall, said “We’re so pleased to be hosting the So Many Beauties Dementia Friendly Music Festival at the Hall again. Showcasing and celebrating the amazing creativity and music of dementia groups from across Greater Manchester is really special for us – we can’t wait to welcome So Many Beauties and the hundreds of participants, performers and festival-goers to The Bridgewater Hall”

The festival is free to attend but tickets must be booked in advance. You can grab yours using the button below.