Fail Better presents BIG IS BUOYANT: SHEELANAGIG/BUFFO'S WAKE ORCHESTRA/ SHARK STUFF FINHARMONIC
Schedule
Sat, 29 Nov, 2025 at 07:00 pm to Sun, 30 Nov, 2025 at 01:00 am
UTC+00:00Location
The Old Market Brighton | Brighton, EN
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Big is Beautiful is great but did you know it's also BUOYANT?It's been a long time since our last Old Market shenanigans, and we are delighted to be back to the beautiful venue in November for all things folk and/at sea.
We will be pouring our hearts, souls, sweat and unspecified amount of working hours to bring you a selection of oversized musical highlights, circus choreography, brass bands, electro ceilidhs, power-folk, maritime musical mélange and a whole host more unexpected delights.
Early fish tickets available on our and The Old Market's website.
SHEELANAGIG (20th anniversary show)
Sheelanagig have been whipping up a storm of foot-stomping, roof-raising, high-energy live folk for nigh on twenty years. With an arsenal of strings, soaring flute, pounding drums and a sprinkle of fairy dust they spin melodies that have set feet flying all across the globe. Their shows are a heady mix of raucous dance medleys and thoughtfully crafted original pieces feverishly brimming with fire, flair and finesse. Floors tremble and windows rattle in their presence; these rapturous minstrels are not to be missed under any circumstance.
Drawing deep from a bountiful well of European folk traditions, from medieval melodies to modern grooves, from baroque to folk-rock, Sheelanagig’s irresistible alchemy makes it impossible to stand still. Their infectious energy and mischievous stagecraft are matched only by their impeccable musicianship—delighting festival crowds and intimate venues
alike.
Now, in 2025, they mark twenty years of tuneful trickery with the release of St Congar’s Walking Stick—heralding a new dawn for Sheelanagig. In this thrilling new chapter, the
band have embraced folk-rock flavours, break-neck bangers, thoughtful takes on the traditional and a raucous array of original material which blends seamlessly with their time-honoured, inimitable style. Produced by their guitarist Alex Garden (The Drystones, Tarren) this album ventures boldly into new realms whilst remaining faithful to it’s heritage.
One feels the clout of twenty years' experience, bolstered and ignited by the drive of a daring new frontier in UK folk.
"What a joy… a good night out guaranteed." – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2
"The musicianship is tight and intense." – Songlines
BUFFO'S WAKE ORCHESTRA
The Buffo’s Wake Orchestra is an ever growing collective of musicians, occasionally congregating in seemingly unlikely and increasingly impossible situations across the festival stages of Europe and beyond. Armed with accordions, violins, trumpets, cimbaloms tubas and buckets full of gusto they waltz, tango, mosh and kolo their way through a vast array of influences from Eastern European, Balkan and Russian folk, to punk rock and cabaret, telling tales of debauchery, deformity, zombie apocalypses and unspeakable obsceneties, whilst making audiences dance late into the night in the process.
Musical eccentrics, drawing from diverse backgrounds ranging from Drum n’ Bass DJ’s to classically trained string players, punks to funk players and poets to showmen, you’re never quite sure what to expect next from Buffo’s Wake.
In their time together, they have toured all over the world, finding an inspired, confused, sweaty, and often very drunk reception everywhere they go.
Chaotic Klezmer Carnival Punks – with influences from Abba to Zappa, Buffo’s Wake are guaranteed to leave you dancing like a man possessed!
SHARK STUFF FINHARMONIC ORCASTRA
SHARK STUFF is a four-piece band that fuses surf rock, prog, and metal with a dash of video game music influence. For one night only(?) they will grow extra f̶i̶n̶s̶ horns and pectoral flippers and elevate their performance to a classy high.
https://www.instagram.com/sh4rk.stuff/
https://sharkstuff.bandcamp.com/.../troutsmasher-ep-japan...
https://www.youtube.com/@SharkStuffBand
LOS FUCKIN SURFER SMOKERS
Surf, Cumbia, Rock n´Roll and Chicha Psicodélica from Bogotá, Colombia.
https://losfuckinsurfersmokers.bandcamp.com
CEILIDH BOOM
Ceilidh dancing! Traditional folk tunes recorded and remixed into ridiculous electronic dance smash-em-ups. Raucous party knees-upery for all!
NAOMI WOOD
Performer, Writer & Facilitator. Poetry that's ‘hilarious, wholesome, powerful’.
https://linktr.ee/naomiwoodwrites
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Where is it happening?
The Old Market Brighton, Brighton, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
