We Out Here Festival is always one of the big weekends in the UK jazz calendar for all of us at Warriors. Over the years Tomorrow’s Warriors have programmed hundreds of their young musicians across different stages and been able to watch some of their incredible alumni headline there.
But this year is going to be even more special for the pioneering jazz development charity following the announcement that the Big Top stage has been renamed and will now be called The Tomorrow’s Warriors Big Top!
“I am very excited that Tomorrow’s Warriors are joining us for another year at WOH – their importance cannot be overstated. Be it in the future talent they are bringing through or the incredible names that have come before, they are a vital part of our cultural scene. So much so, we have renamed the Big Top Stage in their honour!” Gilles Peterson, broadcaster, DJ, and We Out Here founder
Tomorrow’s Warriors Co-Founder Janine Irons OBE picks up the story of their involvement at We Out Here:
“For us as an organisation, this is amazing recognition of the impact so many of our musical family have had on the scene. I can’t wait to see our young musicians and emerging artists perform in the Tomorrow’s Warriors Big Top! In a strange way, this was almost destined to happen, as it feels like Tomorrow’s Warriors has been part of the We Out Here story pretty much from the beginning.
The We Out Here Brownswood album released in 2018 featured a whole stack of our alumni; Shabaka, Nubya, Ezra Collective, Moses Boyd, Theon Cross, Joe Armon-Jones, and Kokoroko, and for a lot of people this was either their first exposure to what was being called ‘the London Jazz explosion’, or it cemented what many others already knew… the British jazz scene was strong, but here was a generation doing something a bit special.
A big part of the Tomorrow’s Warriors ethos is ‘each one, teach one’. Share your learnings, pass it on, help the next generation. At We Out Here, the young musicians that we have curated on the Lush Life and Big Top stages share the festival billing with the musicians that passed through Warriors before them, that have helped shape the British jazz scene over the last 10-15 years and have inspired them. They can see what they want to be, and that is such an important step in helping encourage and develop young musicians, particularly for those from diverse and sometimes challenging backgrounds.
Being able to develop your skills as a live performer is an essential element for any young musician. To be able to do that at a festival is a fantastic step up for an emerging artist. You want to capture the audience’s attention from the first bar of your set, give them something they’re going to love, and at the same time you need to hold down your nerves and channel you adrenalin. It never ceases to amaze me how, year after year, our young Warriors step onto the stage at We Out Here and they GROW.
They grow because they are amongst family, the Warriors family of emerging artists that are treading the same path as them over the course of the weekend. But also, the elders, the Warriors who came before them, who are now headlining the main stage… they can see who they want to be.
For this to all be happening alongside the family of like-minded music heads that make We Out Here such a special vibe is a unique opportunity.
So, a huge THANK YOU to all of the team that make We Out Here such a great festival, for inviting us to join their journey from the beginning and for all the opportunities for the next generation of young jazz musicians to perform live!”
We Out Here festival runs from 15-18 August at Wimborne St Giles, Dorset, UK.
