WemsFest Arts Organisation

Experience Music from Around the World

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The Next Event at Chidham is Boo Hewerdine and Yvonne Lyon - 22nd May 2026

Yvonne Lyon and Boo Hewerdine‘s new collaboration, ‘Things Found In Books’, is an album of songs written in response to a notice board in Culzean Castle’s secondhand bookshop.Notes, photographs, old receipts,
letters, postcards and fragments of people’s lives had been collected and kept on the board on the wall among the bookshelves.Forming an inimitable songwriting partnership, Yvonne and Boo weave these
ephemeral stories with their own, creating an album full of nostalgia and beauty, hope and longing.

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The Old Malthouse - A Hub for Global Music

The Emsworth-based voluntary arts organisation WemsFest* has been using the hall – which they affectionately call ‘The Old Malthouse’ for several years to present music from all over the world.

Countless artistes have performed there from solo artists to 10-piece African dance bands, and attracted audience members from as far afield as Northern Ireland, and Norway:

The organisation’s Artistic Director Mark Ringwood said “This hall has such a wonderful inbuilt atmosphere which our audiences and musicians absolutely love no matter whether it’s a seated or standing situation.”

*‘WemsFest’ is a portmanteau of ‘Westbourne’ and ‘Emsworth’ and was established in 2010 as an annual arts festival. It has since gone on to provide music events throughout the year.

WemsFest is an entirely volunteer-run community interest company, meaning that all our profits are reinvested into the local community.


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