Is there any­one who does­n’t fan­cy the idea of a fes­ti­val with only 600 peo­ple? The event in ques­tion is Sea Change, the – well let’s call it inti­mate – event takes place in Totnes, in a selec­tion of quirky and atmos­pher­ic town venues. 

Sea Change Presents announces the first wave of artists for the much-loved fes­ti­val, which returns to Totnes on 27, 28 and 29 May 2022 with a three-day, mul­ti-venue event stretch­ing across the south Devon town.

Fri­day night will be head­lined by Por­ridge Radio, who were due to play at the 2020 event, which was scup­pered by the pan­dem­ic. Vocal­ist and song­writer, Dana Mar­golin, did play a spe­cial live set for Sea Change ‘Goes Online’, but the full-band’s live per­for­mance will be a euphor­ic reminder ofwhat we’ve missed.

Also on the line­up: Gwen­no returns to Totnes after a daz­zling show in sup­port of her acclaimed ‘Le Kov’ album in 2018; Kathryn Joseph; Katy J Pear­son; Michael Price; Rough Trade’s new eight-piece long­form space-rock­ers, car­o­line; the propul­sive Lon­don synth/drum duo, Soccer96; Scot­tish writer, pro­duc­er and mul­ti-instru­men­tal­ist, Andrew Wasy­lyk; Émi­lie Tiersen as Quin­quis, whose new record, Seim, is steeped in her Bre­ton fam­i­ly his­to­ry; York­shire’s The Lounge Soci­ety; and two of Dublin’s finest new exports, MELTS and Sil­ver­backs.

Sea Change con­tin­ues its tra­di­tion of pre­sent­ing excit­ing new tal­ent, this year includ­ing Sinead O’Brien, Lucy Gooch, Tara Clerkin Trio, Char­lotte Spi­ral, High­School, Fran Lobo and DITZ. Also return­ing to Sea Change are fel­low Devon natives, Pale Blue Eyes.

More artists will be announced in Feb­ru­ary, includ­ing film and lit­er­a­ture events in part­ner­ship with Rough Trade Books, White Rab­bit and Faber & Faber.

From 27–29 May 2022, atmos­pher­ic build­ings across Totnes town will become venues for an event span­ning music, art, film and lit­er­a­ture, put togeth­er by peo­ple who spend all day lis­ten­ing to records. Grade I‑listed St Mary’s Church, the eth­i­cal­ly inno­v­a­tive Bull Inn, the Bar­rel House Ball­room, 17th-cen­tu­ry Bird­wood House, exquis­ite­ly restored Totnes Cin­e­ma and Drift Record Shop among others.

Already announced, as a very spe­cial launch night event, on Thurs­day 26 May, Chilly Gon­za­les will per­form an inti­mate solo piano recital at Dart­ing­ton’s Great Hall,.

Both week­end tick­ets and bun­dles – to include the Chilly Gon­za­les show – are on sale now via www.seachangepresents.co.uk

Sea Change founder, Rupert Mor­ri­son, says, “Though we say it our­selves, this is a huge­ly impres­sive first announce­ment, and all the more daz­zling when you con­sid­er that the week­end capac­i­ty is just 600 peo­ple. We brought peo­ple back to Totnes town in August 2021 and it was sur­re­al and huge­ly excit­ing. We’ve been work­ing hard for months and, today, being able to start talk­ing about our amaz­ing guests is a pret­ty euphor­ic moment. May 2022 is going to feel cel­e­bra­to­ry, safe and total­ly invig­o­rat­ing. After so many stops and starts, final­ly bring­ing the likes of Katy J Pear­son and Por­ridge Radio to town feels big. The May 2022 ros­ter (with a lot more still to be announced) is one of which we’re extreme­ly proud and we can’t wait for each and every show.”

Sea Change tick­ets are sold via Cit­i­zen Tick­et. For every tick­et pur­chased, 5p goes towards plant­i­ng trees in the UK. This way, hun­dreds of years after an event has fin­ished, its lega­cy will still live on, absorb­ing CO² and help­ing local wildlife to flour­ish. https://www.citizenticket.co.uk/trees/