Newham Music - 10 Years On - Passing The Torch

This week, Lee Valley VeloPark was proud to host the Festival of Youth with Newham Music where we saw 2000 children and young people descend on the venue to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The Newham Music event on 6th July saw Lee Valley VeloPark host a large music event for the first time. It was an innovative event where we saw participants engaging in immersive musical activities before performing at the Festival of Youth showcase, which saw 200 young musicians from six local Newham schools joined in the track’s centre by a professional orchestra to perform songs and specifically composed music that celebrated the Borough and the legacy of London 2012. Over 1500 additional students from more than 25 Newham Schools sat in the spectator seats to form a mass choir that provided vocal support to the musicians.

It was a fantastic experience for those children and young people in attendance,  all learning how to build their musicianship skills, perform with other children and other schools and ultimately seeing them gain a great sense of accomplishment being a part of such a large-scale production.

As part of the legacy from the London Olympic and Paralympic Games it’s great to see what’s been established and also fantastic to see the return of large-scale, in-person music performances for young people.

The children who took part in the interactive day of music-making and performance will go on to have a chance to perform in award-winning venues such as the Theatre Royal Stratford East, the Troxy, and even the Barbican - from all the team at Lee Valley VeloPark we wish you good luck and hope to see you again soon.

To find out more information about Newham Music, click here. If you’d like to find out more about the 10 year anniversary at Lee Valley, click here.