Why did you get involved in vinspired Lake of Stars?
We wanted to visit a new country and do singing while we were there and heard about vLOS through a friend who said it was a brilliant event. So we thought volunteering at the festival would be a great opportunity to try and put a performance together with audience members who were there to have a good time anyway!
What did you do?
We rounded up as many willing people as possible to be involved in our singing workshops with the aim of performing on the main stage at vLOS by the last day. Watch our video below to see what happened!
In the UK we: Prepared our vocal workshops and did our own vocal arrangements of a few songs that we planned to teach for the performance. We also spent some time promoting what we would be doing and tried to get some early recruiting in for willing participants.
In Malawi we: Spent the evenings and mornings approaching people to let them know what we were up to and then ran our vocal workshops in the afternoon. Often people were too hung over to even consider getting involved but we managed to get a good group together eventually and made a lovely sound singing 'Feeling Good' by Nina Simone.
What next?
Now we are back in London, we hope to set up a choir who will perform at events we are going to run to raise money for all the youth groups and organisations we visited in Malawi following the festival, including; Bola Moyo, FOMO, Story Workshop and Open Arms. If you would like to volunteer your time and join the choir, contact us at globejam@myspace.com.
Would you recommend volunteering to other young people?
Definitely. There is so much to learn in any field you are interested in and it is a great way to meet the right people who can give you advice and point you in the right direction of what to do next.
Tommy & Sarah attend the vinspired Lake of Stars Festival where they round up audience members to be involved in their vocal workshops. Watch & see if they manage to get everyone together for the final performance on the main stage.
Tommy & Sarah visit the Bola Moyo Youth Centre in Balaka where they meet a lovely bunch of cockroaches! Watch to see the girls teach this talented group of children three Globe Jam vocal arrangements.
If you are 16-25 and would like to volunteer, find opportunities at vinspired.com
Words, photos and videos by Tommy Ludgate and Sarah Grace
