In 2023 Kiya Ashton and Eloise Fabbri staged an event highlighting the work of female artists, musicians and poets in Guernsey to mark International Women’s Day and, given the success of that event, they brought it back for 2024 – moving it back a day, so as not to clash with the Vale Earth Fair’s DJ night marking the event, and from St James to The Fermain Tavern.
As with last year’s event the venue had been decorated specially (in this case by Maisie Bisson) and various artworks were dotted about the venue from artists including Alisha Flouquet, Louise Le Pelley, Vivien Ferneyhough, Trudie Shannon, Grace Stevens and Rand Brun which, from the off, added a different feel and colour to the space.
It was something new that began the live part of the evening as Chloe Fergusson of Guernsey Bubbles took to the stage for a display of ‘bubble art’.
While this may initially sound like a fairly ridiculous pursuit and the reserve of children’s parties only, Chloe has taken the simple act of blowing bubbles and made it into something akin to magic.
Across her performance she created bubbles from just her hands in a way I’ve never seen before moving on to illuminate the bubbles in spectacular colours and even make ones that could fly.
While, by her own admission, there were certain tricks that didn’t go to plan I can only assume this is a part of working with something as ephemeral as bubbles and it didn’t detract from the overall show.
Trudie Shannon then took to the stage to read a selection of poetry.
Following the theme of the event Trudie chose a selection of her’s and other’s pieces focussing on the female experience of various aspects of life from the more day to day to more extraordinary.
With a majority of the audience held rapt, I have to admit that, at a couple of points, the subjects became a bit serious for a Saturday night at The Tav (but I know this is a personal view), but there was no denying the quality of the work and, even if serious, the issues covered were most definitely important ones.
The first of the evening’s musical performers was next, in the form of Katja Martin and her banjo.
The traditional view of the instrument might suggest that the banjo isn’t going to be one that lends itself to solo performance but Katja has come up with something that really works, using the instrument’s idiosyncrasies to its benefit when combined with her voice.
Across her set mixed her own songs with traditional pieces and some more pop (in the general sense) songs and again held the audience’s attention in impressive fashion while her playing and singing was probably the best I’ve heard from her – and how many sets do you get that span Scottish folk songs to the soundtrack to Tarantino movies to Mexican songs sang in Spanish?
Armed with not just her acoustic guitar but a range of seemingly traditional Australian percussion instruments, Maryen Cairns added something different to her usual acoustic folk for this show.
Heading more into what might get called ‘healing music’ and alternative spiritual territory it was certainly a change of pace but she took the crowd with her on this journey from pieces inspired by her experiences with Indigenous Australians to more traditional western folk styles.
I’ll admit that a lot of this didn’t connect with me, but then I’m not sure I was the target audience in this context and it was clear many in attendance did find something in it, judging by the reactions after each song.
After a couple of folk inspired artists it was time for a bit of a change as Ellen F and Nicole Wyatt brought us a selection of (what I’ll probably rather inaccurately describe as) modern classical pieces.
The addition of Nicole’s viola to Ellen’s piano brought something entirely new to it and both are clearly such exceptional players that it’s simply terrific to hear and see them play and again this showed in the audience’s response.
For parts of the set words were added to the music in a poetic style, read from off stage by Rand Brun, which again took it in another direction and added some variety.
The sixth and final act of the night came in the form of The Basement Preachers and it was slightly disappointing that a good number of the audience seemed to leave after Ellen and Nicole so, whether that was due to the musical style or the time of night (and it’s wasn’t even 11), I did feel for the band – though they took it in their stride and carried on regardless putting in a highly enjoyable set.
Their particular mix of folky tendencies combined with Americana and fantastic storytelling was again a delight with the fiddle of Jess Nash and the guitar of Nick Dodd (the evening’s only male performer) working together brilliantly with Rand Brun’s vocals sounding terrific over the top.
There were points here where it sounded like their country side was coming out even more, and I could all but hear an upright bass being slapped underneath, and they made for a great way to round off the night with a good balance of great playing and knowingly irreverent fun.
Once again, then, Kiya and Eloise did a terrific job putting on this showcase giving just a hint of the quality of art being made by women in Guernsey while making for something of a nice change of pace compared to other musical events and bringing different styles together in one place, so I hope this becomes a regular event on the artistic and musical calendar.
Tommy Girard 
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