On Saturday, April 18, Dublin’s Aviva Stadium will play host to the seventh annual Irish Youth Music Awards, the country’s only all island youth focused music festival, with over sixteen different regions from across Ireland participating in the project.
Events have been running since last December across the whole island with the national event – organised by Youth Work Ireland – taking place on the day. According to the Youth Work Ireland, the aim of the IYMA is “to provide every young person with the opportunities to get tools for life and change communities. Each year the programme is launched and rolled out in clubs and projects all over Ireland, and by Youth Action Northern Ireland in the north. Each region holds a local live selection night and the performers choose the act and original song to represent their region at the National event, and they get a chance to perform in the Aviva Stadium. All the other regional performers then form a team around the representing act, and learn a range of new skills such as taking press photos, social media and writing a tech spec. A national recipient is selected at the national event in the Aviva on April 18 and the prize includes the professional recording, mastering and launch of an album, which includes all the team members from the winning region.
Barry Lennon,who has been involved in several successful music projects throughout the city is the Director of the project, said, “It’s great to be able to be able to deliver a project like this which gives young people the opportunity to perform songs they have written themselves and for them to have the opportunity to perform with other young people from across Ireland. The national event is a great day out for young people looking to get advice on the music industry as well as getting to see great young bands from across Ireland play we will also have other stages and activities to get involved in the day as the event will have a festival atmosphere. The national event is strictly a no-alcohol event to create a safe space for young people of all ages to attend. This year’s focus is on music and education and we are excited to announce that tutors from Ireland’s leading contemporary music college, BIMM Dublin, are supporting our programme by participating in workshops and industry panels on the day.”
Patrick Burke CEO of York Work Ireland said, “It’s important for us as an organisation to have a flagship programme like this which supports young people exploring employment opportunities within the creative industries while working together as a team. We are excited to have more young people involved than previous years and we hope to grow the project each year with the young people leading the project”.
To keep up to date with the project you can see the website here, Facebook and Twitter. Doors are at 10am. General admission is 20 euro and available here. Buy group tickets available for youth clubs here.
