Northamptonshire Local Music Awards to return for second annual event

The Northamptonshire Local Music Awards will return this year for its second annual event, to showcase some of the county’s best musicians, events and venues.

The awards were launched last year to help recognise and champion the county’s music scene.

All of the main awards will return and nominations in 15 of the 16 categories can now be submitted.

Awards director Tommy Gardner said: “It’s great to have the awards back for a second year.

“Last year was a huge success and I cannot wait to again celebrate the amazing local music scene we have here in Northamptonshire.

“We’ve made some slight changes to the categories bringing even more inclusion within the genres.

“We have also added a new category, Community Choir of the year.

“There are lots of community choirs within the county that bring so many people together.

“I am very excited to celebrate these groups within the awards.”

This year’s categories include Song Of The Year, Album / EP / Mixtape Of The Year, Music Video Of The Year, Pop Artist Of The Year, Rap / Grime / Drill / Hip Hop Artist Of The Year, Indie / Rock / Alternative / Metal Artist Of The Year, Producer Of The Year, Acoustic / Country / Folk Artist Of The Year, Community Choir Of The Year, Specialist Music Show Or Podcast Of The Year, Cover Artist Of The Year, Local Music Venue Of The Year, Live Event Or Initiative Of The Year, R&B / Afrobeats / Dancehall / Reggae Artist of The Year and Dance / Electronic / Soundsystem / D&B Artist Of The Year.

There will again be an Outstanding Contribution To Local Music award which will be decided by organisers.

Talking about last year’s event, Mr Gardner said: “Last year was very overwhelming in a good way, I genuinely wasn’t expecting the great response that we had.

“My favourite part was the ceremony, to have so many people from the music scene inside the same room was very special.”

Nominations can be made until Friday, July 14, at 10pm.

Following this, nominations will be verified and a shortlist will be released for each of the categories.

There will again be public voting, however this year organisers are introducing an awards panel to make the final decisions on category winners.

Nominations of acts, music, events and venues must be based on activity from April 29 last year until July 14.

An awards night, featuring live performances, will take place in the autumn at a venue in Northampton.

Last year’s winners included Carly Wilford, Lay It Down, Flash Peasants, Phantom Isle, Sarpa Salpa, FFSYTHO?! and The Black Prince.

For more information and to make nominations, visit www.northamptonshiremusicawards.com