Fresh Thursday // Cerys Hafana + Auka

Name: Fresh Thursday // Cerys Hafana + Auka
Start: 2025-10-09T19:00:00+01:00
End: 2025-10-09T22:00:00+01:00
Location: Cobalt Studios CIC

Schedule

Thu Oct 09 2025 at 07:00 pm to 10:00 pm

UTC+01:00

Location

Cobalt Studios CIC | Newcastle Upon Tyne, EN

Fresh Thursday is a unique regular event that showcases new music alongside a home-cooked meal. For more information about how this event works please read the info at the bottom of this event carefully. Thank you. If you have a dietary requirement you can indicate it by selecting one of the free add-ons when purchasing your ticket.
Please note, the advertised start time is when our doors will open, generally music starts one hour after doors.
Please note we are unable to offer refunds.
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Cerys Hafana
Cerys Hafana is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who mangles, mutates, and transforms traditional music. She explores the creative possibilities and unique qualities of the triple harp, and is also interested in found sounds, archival materials and electronic processing. She comes from Machynlleth, Wales, where rivers and roads meet on the way to the sea. is a composer and multi-instrumentalist who mangles, mutates, and transforms traditional music.
Cerys has won over audiences from Green Man to the Eisteddfod and from BBC 6 Music Festival to Celtic Connections with her magical, progressive sound.
Edyf, her second album, drew inspiration from material found in the Welsh National Library’s online archive, including fragments of Psalm tunes, hymns about doomsday and philosophical musings on the length of eternity, along with some original compositions, and was selected as one of The Guardian’s Top Ten folk albums of 2022. Cerys’ latest EP, The Bitter, released earlier in 2024 is an innovative exploration of some dark English and Scottish ballads.
“eerie folk fusion and creative use of harp and found sounds. Innovation abounds…. likely to take a song that we all know so well and tilt it to one side.” Tradfolk
'…she’s an adept shapeshifter, entwining tradition with direct and personal interpretations to create music that’s both progressive, profound and inspiring.' Alex Gallagher, Folk Radio UK
'Hafana explores resonances from the past that connect with the modern day in a contemporary, creative way... she uses her harp as a percussive, jagged-toothed tool… sings movingly, her high voice like an indie-pop soprano shorn of its sweetness.’ Jude Rogers, The Guardian.
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Auka
Inspired by the melodies and rhythms of the natural world, Auka perform genre-defying original music combining wide-ranging influences including Celtic music and jazz.
Auka’s music evokes the nature and landscapes that surround their home of Sheffield, taking audiences on an intimate journey over moorland, through woodland and along rivers. The trio consists of Kirsty Lomax on Irish flute & whistles, Matt Gilchrist on acoustic guitar and Joss Mann-Hazell (of Mishra) on double bass. The name ‘Auka’ comes from an Old Norse word meaning to grow or augment - a term that perfectly sums up the band’s organic and unique sound, where original folk melodies gradually swell from moments of delicate calm to those of frenetic energy.
Having released two albums and performed at festivals including Towersey and Cambridge Folk Festival, Auka are a growing presence on the UK folk scene. Audiences are captivated by the spellbinding interplay between the three musicians, whose intricate melodies ebb and flow in a “striking homage to the natural world” (Songlines Magazine). The band have a deep love of the outdoors and use their music to share their passion for the Right to Roam and the importance of access to wild spaces for all.
Auka’s thoughtful and playful music will transport you to beautiful places and leave you wanting to seek out the natural world yourself. Their blend of impressive instrumental sound and purposeful writing is not to be missed.
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More about FRESH Thursdays...
FRESH happens every Thursday during our open seasons. It is a platform to bring you fresh new music served up alongside a homecooked plant based meal, board games and candles. It can be hard to get people out to hear music that they don’t know yet & this is why we decided to offer dinner as an incentive to try something new, these gigs are cosy, communal nights and often you get to hear completely new music for the very first time. The music varies across multiple genres but it is usually fairly gentle listening type music & well suited to a relaxed Thursday night. The gigs are seated and during the sets the audience is very music focused & quiet with time to chat in between the sets and at the end when we keep the bar open.
We cook the food from scratch usually and dinner is well suited to lover of vegetables and wholesome cooking, it's usually something like a dhal, veggie chilli, tacos, roast veg or similar, our base line is vegan sometimes with veggie options. We can cater for nut/gluten free meals, but nuts & gluten are used in the kitchen so if you have serious allergies please bear that in mind.
Doors at 7pm, we aim to get dinner ready by 8pm and will bring it to you when its ready… music usually starts around 8pm, sometimes later if it’s a busy night for food (we are a tiny team) and we aim to have the music finished by 10-10.15 pm. We can only guarantee dinner with advance tickets and these days we cap dinner at 60 meals and the food tickets do often sell out.
We hope/think it's obvious that quality music and dinner for £10 is all about culture & community and that these events cost us money… If you can afford to purchase a higher level ‘Cobalt supporters‘ ticket we appreciate the additional help towards costs very much.