Team Towersey

You may wonder who it is that actually organises and runs Towersey Festival.  Well, apart from over 240 fantastic volunteers and a small village Committee to oversee local contact, there is a full-time team on the case all year round.  Here we are:

Bev Langton
Bev Langton
more

Soon after being introduced to folk music by my best friend’s brother, I met Ray who had by then also started to develop his folkie interest too ….and the rest as they say ‘is history’. I just love the music, love the festival scene and quite like children too.  I was born to organise and therefore being able to mix all of this together to plan what is hopefully a pretty enjoyable festival for children – just makes for a great August Bank Holiday weekend every year!

Ray Langton
more

I first stumbled on folk music at the age of 15 while looking for a place to hide from a gang fight at my local youth club.  Found the people there so welcoming that I was back the next week ready to sing and have been totally hooked ever since.  Have played, sung and been involved at festivals since the early 70’s and just love the festival ‘buzz’.  At Towersey Festival Bev and I spend the majority of our time in the Children’s Centre ensuring that the work we have put in over the winter means that all the young people have a brilliant time over the weekend.  Making sure that the festival encourages the ‘folk of the future’ is a mission of ours and we are convinced that early experiences at festivals can pave the way for the future.  The year would not be the same without Towersey!

Alan Bearman
more

I’ve been coming to the festival since the late 1970s and have been looking after the artistic side of things since 1988.  I now sit around in Artist Reception every year and watch my daughter Florence run things.  In between festivals I run a music agency, watch my local football team, cook things, listen to music and fantasise about moving to Suffolk.

Louix Heap
Lioux Heap
more

Having now worked as part of Team Towersey for the last 14 years I couldn’t imagine my life without it!  To me the year is spent choosing pieces of the jigsaw that fit together to make Towersey what it is, the final piece being the Festival itself.  Now I bring my children, other family members and friends to join in and they keep coming back! Before Team Towersey?  I’m “qualified” to work with children, both as a Nursery Nurse and Hospital Play Specialist – I started at a Child Development Centre attached to Warwick Hospital, then London called and I worked at Great Ormond Street Hospital for 5 years.  I loved that job but the commuting was horrendous!  After that I worked at Stoke Mandeville Hospital for a short while before joining Steve at Mrs Casey Music. Shoes, lipsticks and sailing boats make me very happy.  You know what to bring me.

Joe Heap
more

Towersey is my family festival and I have missed only 2 (or maybe 3) in 34 years (guess how old I am!)  I have done everything you can think of at the festival from stewarding to selling t-shirts.  I have managed venues, put up signs, directed traffic, sold tickets and MC’d concerts.  Now I kind of do a bit of everything and whatever need’s doing to make Towersey great! Strangely, I am a semi professional singer steeped in folk history (from my whole family) and yet can’t sing folk songs – work that one out!  I learnt to juggle at Towersey when I was 11 and I reckon I could still ride a unicycle (challenge me at the Festival if you see me).  My favourite Festival food is Pura Vida Mexican......they are part of the Towersey furniture for me! I like football (Liverpool), wine and box sets (in that order............but with my Family in first).

Steve Heap
more

I missed the first Towersey Village Festival in 1965 but have spent August Bank Holiday weekend in the same place ever since.  By 1975 Denis Manners (the founder) needed some help, I stepped up and have been the custodian ever since.  Seeing hundreds of people cheering, singing, dancing, resting and generally enjoying our unique atmosphere is the best possible reward for a years work.
The rest of the time I spend in Matlock, pretending I’m on holiday, enjoying my family and the hills and dales around us.  When I find the time, Langdale in Cumbria is heaven, picking up social causes, voting and hoping for a peaceful, fairer society for all, is on my mind. Towersey, ‘another lovelier world’ could be infectious.