Battle of the Bands 2024 - Expanded to All of Devon
Following the huge success of last year’s East Devon Battle of the Bands, East Devon-based production company R&K Systems are coming back this year with a bigger and better contest for 2024.
Last year, 50 bands and solo artists entered the East Devon competition alone. We included students from Kings School in Ottery St Mary, Cranbrook School and the Rock Project and many of the bands applied independently.
This year, we are teaming up with the Devon & Torbay Music Education Hub & the Music In Devon Initiative, with four school partners running heats in North, South, East and West Devon. The age limit for this contest is 18 years old and this will bring together four existing Battle of the Bands contests, with young musicians from the whole county battling it out at the Final.
Sign Up To Take Part;
Visit the Devon & Torbay Music Education Hub and sign up by way of the online form. Please note that this form should be completed by a teacher from the school that band members attend on the behalf of the band applying.
We need your postcode in particular to allocate you to your closest heat. Applications are open until June 1st.
The Heats;
- South Devon; Plympton Academy (Plymouth) Monday 17th June
- West Devon; Coombeshead Academy (Newton Abbot) Tuesday 18th June
- East Devon; Cranbrook Eduction Campus (Cranbrook) Wednesday 19th June
- North Devon; Petroc College (Barnstaple) Thursday 20th June
The Final:
The Final will held at Bomba on Exeter Quay on Thursday June 27th.
The Prizes
We're not big fans of competitions that reward only a few of those that get involved as we feel that this can be discouraging. So, there will be the following prizes to share among contestants.
A Free Day Recording with R&K Systems
We will record the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Prize winners, giving them each a day of studio time. This can be either used to record just one song or as part of additional studio days to work on more than one song.
Free Mixing & Mastering From Pete Marten
Peter Marten is the producer we work with for all of our recordings and we have free mixing & mastering of one song for each of the winners available as a prize. They'll be in safe hands, Pete won “Best Producer” at the Devon Music Awards.
Hear the Quality of the Music
We've worked in this way on 2 Kabins single and the Leonard & The Zombies debut EP. Click on the image below to hear the songs.
Once we have finished music from the 3 winners, we'll mentor them to get their music on streaming platforms. We'll help them to develop an Electronic Press Kit and set up local radio showcases such as takeover shows on Phonic FM. Through this mentoring, we hope to support young people in the first stages of getting their music out there.
Paid Festival Appearances
We already have arrangements in place with the following festivals and will be offering paid festival appearances to participants that impress us;
- Fore Street Flea (Date tbc)
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Poltimore Festival; 25-26 May
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Coldharbour Solstice Sessions; 21-23 June
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Exmouth Festival; End of July
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The Balfour Arms Stage Sidmouth Folk Week; 4-11 Aug
- The Anchor Garden Stage Sidmouth Folk Week; 4-11 Aug
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Exeter Street Arts Festival; Aug 26th (Date tbc)
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Kabin Fever Festival Sidmouth; 27 Aug
- Ottery Food & Families Festival; 14 Sept