Kirsty was invited speaker at the Street Music Conference. This event explored an important but often neglected aspect of public culture and community construction: street music. The conference drew together new knowledge and practice generated by funded research projects across Connected Communities with work across a number of academic disciplines as well as the creative sector. Following Connected Communities established practice, the conference provided a place for dialogue between academics, independent researchers, musicians, performers, and the arts and cultural policy sectors.

Other speakers included –

Dr David Atkinson,  Honorary Research Fellow at the Elphinstone Institute Aberdeen, author of The Anglo-Scottish Ballad and its Imaginary Contexts (2014), and co-editor of Street Literature of the Long Nineteenth Century: Producers, Sellers, Consumers (2017)

Chester Bingley, Director, Keep Streets Live

Nick Broad, CEO and founder, Busk.co

Mark Denbigh, Head of Production & Programme, Norfolk & Norwich Festival 

Alex Gibson, Music and Creative Arts Regional Specialist (Bishop’s Stortford), Salvation Army

Prof Trevor Herbert, Emeritus Professor in Music at the Open University, author of Music and the British Military in the Long Nineteenth Century (2013), and editor of The British Brass Band: a Musical and Social History (2000)

Kate Jones, Programme Director, Busk in London

Stefano Montes, Researcher in Culture and Society at the University of Palermo, convener of People and Cultures of the World (2019)

Marcus Patteson, Executive Director of Norca and Sistema, Co-founder of Norwich Samba

Mykaell Riley, Senior Lecturer at Westminster School of Arts, Programme Director of the Black Music Research Unit and Principal Investigator for Bass Culture Research

Veronica Stephens, Executive Director, Seachange Arts

Dr Lucy Wright, Research Fellow at University of Leeds in School of Performance and Cultural Industries, artistic-researcher.co.uk

Gina Arnold, Adjunct Professor,  University of San Francisco 

Andrew Green, School of Culture & Creative Arts, University of Glasgow

Samuel Horlor,  Music Department, Durham University

Jaime Rollins, author of Lullabies and Battle Cries: Music, Identity and Emotion among Republican Parading Bands in Northern Ireland.

Kelvin Mason, Campaign Choirs Initiative and Campaign Choirs Writing Collective, who have recently published Singing for Our Lives: stories from the street choirs   

Lotte Reimer, Campaign Choirs Initiative and Natural Voice Network