Tickets have gone on sale as Sea Change 2023 returns to Totnes this May Bank Holiday weekend.
One of the festival season’s most distinctive and best loved happenings, Sea Change will spread across the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, May 26-28, bringing intimate, off-kilter performances and rare, unique and special showcases across music, art, film, literature and more.
Conceived and run by Totnes’ Drift Record Shop, Sea Change will take over Totnes, bringing sounds, conversation and films on Friday 26th and Saturday 27th May 2023, and an all-new lazy Sunday 28th May, which will focus on the many revered regional food and drink producers that make Totnes and its surrounding areas such desirable destinations for food lovers.
Tickets are on sale from 9am on Friday, February 24 2023 from seachangepresents.co.uk and in person at Drift Records in Totnes (a deposit scheme is available to help with purchasing tickets).
Weekend wristbands are just £59.99 (plus booking fee).
Acclaimed artists and emergent talents, installations, conversations and collaborations will fill venues across Totnes, including the hazily atmospheric St Mary’s Church, hugely vital and always-rammed gold-ceilinged Barrel House Ballroom, the beautifully restored picture palace, Totnes Cinema, and the award-winning, eco-pioneering Bull Inn.
And at the very top of the town, but at the heart of the festival, is Drift, hosting signings, performances and serving great coffee, as well as simply being itself - one of the country’s great, most discerning and passionately run record shops.
Bill Ryder-Jones returns to Devon four years (and one pandemic) after his full band Sea Change show in 2019 with an intimate solo piano and guitar show at St Mary’s Church. Bill will perform favourites from his back catalogue alongside first airings of new material.
Saturday night will feature a live set from Manchester post-punk composer Lonelady, an artist who has been on the Sea Change wishlist for the last half-decade. Her most recent ‘Former Things’ album was a masterclass in driving maximalism and we’re honestly so thrilled to welcome her to town.
Friday night is a Speedy Wunderground takeover as part of the label’s tenth birthday celebrations, with two incredibly exciting young talents in the goth-inspired post-punks Heartworms and explosive saxophone and drums duo O.
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Also DJ’ing across the weekend will be Deptford Northern Soul Club, the gimmick-free soul big hitters who have just been dubbed the No.1 of ‘the 25 most banging club nights in the UK’ by Time Out; Andy Votel of Finders Keepers Records, who will bring his esteemed record boxes for a deep dive into the musical unknown; and the esteemed Heavenly Jukebox.
Other musical attractions include the much talked about and Steve Albini-approved Irish feminist band M(h)aol; MEMORIALS, which is the new band of Verity Susman (Electrelane) and Matthew Simms (Wire), veering from melodic songwriting to psychedelic noise, free jazz freak outs, tape loops and drones, and then back again.
A new venue for 2023 is The Albatross, a community space run by the Bull Inn. Opposite The Bull and next door to Drift Records, The Albatross will be hosting conversations and other sessions across the weekend, which will include Rough Trade Books, White Rabbit Books and a collaborative programme of culinary sessions on lazy Sunday, as part of the first town-wide food and drink offering under the Sea Change banner.
For the 2023 edition, Sea Change organisers have reduced the weekend ticket price by 33%, in an attempt to make it as affordable as possible for everybody.
Founder Rupert Morrison explains, “When we first started the event way back in 2015, we needed people to go with us, trust that the record shop could throw a party and keep the town safe. We did, we built it, they came, it grew, and through thick and thin we’ve had the support of an amazing audience of supporters. We know how fierce the current economic landscape is and we feel strongly that making Sea Change a celebratory event in Totnes required as many of the local community to feel engaged and inclined to participate”.
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