AN evening of folk and jazz performed by local young singer-singwriters and musicians, will be taking place as part of the Leigh Folk Festival, in conjunction Metal.

The arts organisation has teamed up with the festival, for the evening to take place at Chalkwell Hall, in Chalkwell Park, on Friday June 22.

Over the past year Metal has run two week-long song-writing courses in conjunction with local music group SoSlam encouraging young emerging songwriters and musicians to develop their skills and knowledge around writing songs.

As part of the Leigh Folk Festival they are inviting these young people to showcase their latest work. Performers will include Anna-Marie Childs, Genevieve Johnson, Lottie Mollica, Niamh O’Shea, Bavard, Leo C and Scarlett Taylor.

Metal has also supported a programme by the National Youth Jazz Collective, where young jazz enthusiasts meet like-minded musicians to develop their skills, passion and experience as jazz players.

Young musicians from Southend have taken part in composition and improvisation classes at Chalkwell Hall.

On Friday they will join forces with the SoSlam singer-songwriters and perform music demonstrating what they have learnt over the year.

Danielle Morgan of the Leigh Folk Festival said: "As we look ahead to Leigh Folk Festival 2018, there are so many fantastic acts to get excited about. "With Metal consistently supporting local community based arts projects, we hope this will be just the start of our partnership and are looking forward to welcoming them onto the programme for this year’s festival."

Sean McLoughlin of Metal, added: " It’s great to be working with the Leigh Folk Festival again.

"We have worked with them over the years back stage with kit share etc, but it’s nice to be part of the ‘front of stage’ programme this year. The two groups of young people that we have been working with over the past few months are really looking forward to having such a great platform and are thrilled to be part of the Leigh Folk Festival, as it’s such a popular and well known local event."

Following on from Friday evening’s event, on Saturday 23 June, Metal will also be running a Festival Utopia workshop with artists Emma Edmondson and Laurence Harding at the Folk Festival in Leigh Library Gardens.

Edmondson and Harding will be exploring the idea of a utopian festival.

They hope to get feedback from the folk-festival-goers about what they would like to see and do at a festival, which will then filter into planning for Village Green 2019.

Metal will be announcing the date and headline for next year’s festival later in July.

The evening takes place from 6pm – 9pm, and promises to deliver folk and jazz in both traditional and contemporary forms.