The Cumberlandia Collective

A collaborative group of west Cumbrian artists woven from the same cloth as the festival

Quickbeam:

Need Fire

More info and tickets

Fri Oct 24th 19:00

Kirkgate Arts Centre, Cockermouth

Join a-capella close harmony quartet Quickbeam for a musical Need Fire – a journey through the cycle of the seasons in song and story, exploring human traditions of gathering together as the year wheels round, and we face into the winter.

Quickbeam (Old English for a Rowan tree) are four singers and musicians based in Cumbria: Abigail Driver, Alison Scott, Arwen Heaton and storyteller Jessie McMeekin, who sing a mix of traditional folk songs and original compositions influenced by blues, gospel, folk and classical music. They bring spine-tingling harmonies, startling original compositions and heart-soaring anthems, combined with an off-beat humour and down-to-earth presentation. Sprinkled like the first snowfall between the songs are Jessie McMeekin’s powerful stories, bringing a spell-binding oral storytelling tradition that has existed since the first people gathered around the first fire.

Light in the Darkness

Autumn / Winter 2025 Rural Tour

Live music and performance storytelling with story-teller Jessie McMeekin and Angie Power, Dave Camlin and Gilli Goodfellow

“In winter, when the green earth is sleeping beneath a blanket of snow, this is the time for storytelling.”

Spend an evening embracing the wildness of winter with spine-tingling music and spell-binding wintery tales. A heart-warming show for anyone who finds winter hard, and who finds the commercial juggernaut surrounding Christmas a bit overwhelming. Light in the Darkness is an antidote to all that, re-connecting us to the rhythms of the natural world through stories and song, as we cycle through the darkness and back to the light once more.