Musical Journeys '25: the Fiona's Travels edition

Aim: To fund a transcontinental celebration of performance AND solidarity with the Amazon - live in Halton nr Lancaster, online around the world

🎶 Musical Journeys 25: The 'Fiona's Travels' edition

A transcontinental celebration of music, movement, and solidarity — live in Halton and online around the world!   

Saturday 4th October 2025

Join us for an unforgettable  international musical cabaret, bringing together extraordinary artists from across the Americas - and helping to support the Amazon Rainforest and its people. This is “Musical Journeys '25: The 'Fiona's Travels' edition”, a one-of-a-kind night of music, dance and tropical joy that came out of a 14-month musical adventure.

You can look forward to performances beamed into your living room or beamed onto our screen in Halton near Lancaster UK  from:

• Mary Beth Carty, Canadian Traditional Folk Singer of the Year 2024, who welcomed me into her kitchen in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, where we cooked and made music together late into the evening.

• Carmen Guérard, Québec’s one-row accordion virtuoso (and my melodeon teacher -  I've been staying up till midnight UK time to learn from her online!). She’ll be joined by pianist Jean Rheaume.

• Cacuriá Balaio das Rosas, an exuberant Afro-Brazilian dance group from São Luís, Brazil, in their very first international online concert - sharing their vibrant rhythms, and maybe teaching us a few dance steps along the way.    I only meant to stay in Sao Luis  for a week, but after just one practice, I was hooked  - and ended up dancing with them five nights a week for a month! 

Plus live on stage in Lancaster: local Capoeira Angola group Ogum, members of Samba Batala, and food, candles, colour and community spirit

🎯 Why I’m Crowdfunding

In 2024, I travelled through Brazil, Peru, the USA, and Canada, with a melodeon and a concertina in my luggage, looking for music, stories, and connections. I , played forró in Bahia and Montreal, danced Cacuriá in São Luís, learned Cape Breton tunes from a blind 88-year-old fiddler in New Brunswick, joined a Quebecois accordion class in Montreal, played Klezmer, Swedish and Cajun music in Canada and the USA, and shared tunes in kitchens and on street corners across the Americas. It was a journey of joy, solidarity, and discovery.

But one of the deeper reasons I went to Brazil was to follow the legacy of Dom Phillips, the British journalist murdered in the Amazon in 2022 alongside Indigenous defender Bruno Pereira while researching a book. His story lit a fire in me -  not least because Dom was the brother of Sian Phillips, a musician friend here in Lancaster.

Three years on, I helped organise the Lancaster launch of Dom's posthumously published book How to Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Deadly Quest for Answers.   Sian spoke movingly about her brother’s death - and about the hope and joy that have emerged from the tragedy through the creation of this book.

At the event we also heard from Indigenous leader Beto Marubo, Guardian global environment editor Jonathan Watts, and Dom’s widow Alessandra Sampaio, founder of the Dom Phillips Institute, which continues Dom’s legacy of amplifying the voices of the Amazon and the knowledge of its Indigenous peoples.

At the end of the evening, Beto Marubo asked the 100+ people gathered what each of us - Dom’s compatriots - would do to help protect the Amazon and support the people fighting for its future. I made a promise to myself: that I'd do whatever I could to carry that torch, and to stand alongside those working on the frontlines to defend the forest.

So this event is part musical cabaret, part homage, and part call to action.

During the pandemic, I learned how to bring people together online through music. I ran four “Musical Journeys” events and raised over £7000 to support performers and local Lancaster causes. This time, I want to use those skills to give international and local artists a fair payment, and support three Amazon-based causes:

• The Dom Phillips Institute 

• A rap battle collective empowering youth in Altamira, Pará

• A musical instrument project supporting Indigenous musicians near Tefé, Amazonas

And to do all this without the stress of relying on ticket sales at the door, I need your help upfront through this crowdfunder.

🎟 Stretch Goals

If we hit our initial funding target, we’ll expand the event to include  even more incredible artists I met on my travels, including The Famille Leblanc with Gilles Losier – Acadian tunes  with deep roots and joyful rhythms - GIlles is an 89 year old fiddle player and piano accompanist, perfectly pitched alongside the 3 young musicians (fiddle/whistle/concertina) of the Famille Leblanc, who have this music running through their veins! 

And if we go even further with our Stretch Targets, I’ll be able to edit and share some extraordinary interviews I recorded on the road - continuing the 'Fiona's Travels, fascinating conversations and traditional music' podcast series I started in 2018, with a traditional music historian, a master musician and two Acadian farmers whose stories deserve to be heard.

🌍 Online & In Person

The in-person event at Halton Mill will be immersive, and vibrant - with great sound from the performers being beamed in from the Americas, plus live Brazil-style local Capoeira and Samba performers, and an international gourmet experience.  Meanwhile, anyone in the world can join us via Zoom and host their own watch party, complete with recipe cards for Brazilian, Acadian and Québécois dishes.

🎶 Why choose the Live Concert? Why go Online? It’s all part of the Musical Journey… 🌍

Whether you’re joining us in person in Halton or tuning in from across the world, Musical Journeys '25 – Fiona’s Travels edition offers something magical for every kind of adventurer.

💫 Come to the Live Concert if you want to…

• Feel the electric energy of an international crowd

• Wave to audiences around the world – and feel the joy of being part of something bigger than the room

• Be right up close when the compere introduces each act – part of the story, not just a spectator

• See the performers on a big screen, in full costume, with fantastic sound and visuals, specially designed for the in-room experience

• Meet the  live guests in person

• Get up and dance with others right there in the room – you never know what rhythm will grab you

• Enjoy delicious world food and a beautiful visual exhibition

• Be part of a buzzing evening cabaret

• Celebrate and support Amazonian causes in real-life community

🛋️ Join the Online Concert if you’d rather…

• Watch from the comfort of home (PJs, pets, and favourite snacks welcome!)

• Recreate that lockdown magic of sharing global music in your living room

• Host a themed watch party with friends or community

• Connect with a worldwide audience via Zoom chat and live interaction

• Support the cause from anywhere in the world, with zero travel hassle

• Dance like no one’s watching (or with everyone on Zoom!) – in your kitchen, garden, or barefoot in the living room

🌿 Whichever way you take part, you’re joining a vibrant celebration of culture, connection, and resistance – and helping raise funds for three grassroots Amazonian projects.

🎟️ Choose your journey. Back the crowdfunder. Be part of the story.

🙏 Why Your Support Matters

This crowdfunder lets us plan with confidence, secure brilliant sound and tech, pay every artist fairly, and reserve funds to support both our performers and crucial projects like the Dom Phillips Institute, running training programmes for young Indigenous leaders and raising awareness across Brazil about the importance of protecting the Amazon. It’s an opportunity to come together in celebration, music, and solidarity - honouring the cultures that have shaped this journey and the urgent cause we stand behind.

Please give what you can - look at the different 'reward categories' and choose the right one for you .  There are online tickets, concert tickets, special reduced price tickets for students and people with limited funds, 'enhanced tickets' with rewards - like digital downloads of Mary Beth Carty's CDs and her beautiful musical stationery... and signed Hannah Frank art prints -

Crossing the causeway, Mary Beth Carty's award winning 2022 CD   Mixing Mary Beth Carty's  favorite jigs & reels with songs from her vast trad repertoire, this multilingual album  pays tribute to the rich cultures of her homeland. With group sing-alongs, danceable instrumentals, and moments of wistful musical meditation, this collection reveals how deep the cultural causeways are that link us together

Mary Beth Carty's 2017 CD 'Les biens-nommes'.  Recorded live off the floor in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, this collection of songs draws inspirartion from klezmer, rhumba, gypsy jazz, and includes two traditional French Canadian pieces. A romantic dance album that will transport you to far off lands with a host of quirky characters.

and this is a sample of her beautiful hand-illustrated musical downloadable stationery - available together with the CDs in the 'enhanced digital downloads' rewards along with online or in person tickets.  

Another 'reward' is a choice of a signed print by the artist Hannah Frank (1908-2008): her black and white drawings, of eerie, long-haired women and fairy folk are well known in her native Glasgow.  An exhibition of her drawings will be on show at Halton Mill at the time of the event in the autumn. 

Woman and Trees 1931      Woman and Birds 1947           Moon Ballet 1934

PLEASE share this with anyone who loves music, connection, and justice. 

With heartfelt thanks from me, from the performers - and from the Amazon 💛🌱🐒🎵
Fiona

ps here's a video from Alessandra Sampaio, Dom Phillips' widow, supporting the crowdfunder and telling us more about the Dom Phillips Institute  

pps please note the Crowdfunder tip is optional, you can edit the 'custom amount' link below the total to be anything you like from zero upwards.  They take a percentage from me so don't feel guilty! 

Funding method

All or nothing – this project will only receive pledges if it reaches its target of £3,500 by 24th July 2025 at 11:59pm