During this time of Covid-19, we had to cancel a couple of projects that we had planned in the Easter Holidays. However, thanks to the generous funding choices of Youth Music and the Southbank Centre who followed through on their contracts, we were able to use their support to run 4 days of sessions online. We did drumming, singing, brass, woodwind, steel pan and games sessions over 4 days with 41 young people. The activity was great. We believe it is so important at this time for us to continue connecting with our young people and also employing our freelance creative team who have had the majority of their work cancelled. We took the opportunity to ask the young people who participated what activity they want us to provide and also how they are feeling the difference between making music together in real life and making music online.

Their answers inspired us to launch the Shutdown Sessions, a series of online sessions that we will facilitate for them over the next few weeks. Their answers also really demonstrated how much they value what we, and many other organisations, provide for them. Whilst we are so grateful for online technology which can help us continue to do some activity in this time of lockdown, it will never replace the power and impact of live music making. It will be more important than ever to get back to this as soon as we are allowed. We believe for the benefit of our young people’s learning, wellbeing and sense of resilience it is essential to connect them through music again as soon as possible.

“We cannot play in unison online and also; I miss contact with friends. Bloco have been the only group I belong to that has tried to keep the group feeling going”

“I can’t wait to play with people in real life as a group. It’s important to meet up and socialise with people of all different ages and backgrounds. We can’t play together on technology”

Through The Shutdown Sessions, we hope that we can at least provide some kind of learning, social interaction, fun and positive support in the session. But we know that there will be some barriers for people who don’t have access to technology or find communication more difficult. So, we are sharing our experiences and ask you to share yours too so we can learn from each other at this time. We have included the full report below if you’d like to read all our findings.

Also, on this #charitytuesday, if you’d like to help us by giving to our Shutdown Sessions campaign, we would really appreciate that. We can’t do any of these activities without the finance to facilitate them. Visit our Localgiving campaign to donate.

If you’d like to give monthly to ensure we can continue to do what we do best on the other side of this virus please consider supporting us on our #BFF Scheme, find out all the details on our website.

Thank you for your support,

Tamzyn, CEO, Kinetika Bloco

Here is our full report – Kinetika Bloco Easter Online Report