With strings attached – the inaugural Stoke Newington Guitar Festival

Finger-picking good: classical guitarist Craig Ogden

Some of the best guitar players in the world will be coming to Hackney this month, at the first ever Stoke Newington Guitar Festival.

A variety of guitarists and styles will be on display at the three-day event, which runs from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 November at St Mary’s Church and St Mary’s Old Church.

The festival, which is sponsored by the European Guitar Teachers Association (EGTA), will include live performances, masterclasses and workshops – with workshops available to children who are at least grade two on guitar.

Francesco Marani, who will be performing and has organised the festival, was keen for it to appeal to as many people as possible.

“We want local music lovers to come to the festival as well as guitar fans,” he says.

“The festival is intentionally broad, with the main focus being classical. However, I didn’t want the festival to be exclusively classical – Byron Moffett is great at both classical and electric guitar.”

Other acts performing include flamenco guitar legend, Juan Martin, classical guitarist, Craig Ogden and String Theory.

Marani believes the strength of the line-up is very important to the festival being successful.

“Juan Martin – I just think of him straight away when I think of flamenco guitar,” he says.

“Gordon Dunn [of String Theory] fuses different styles together, from opera, to heavy metal, and is an incredible virtuoso.”

Francesco believes the guitar is still the most popular instrument around, despite the popularity of other genres nowadays.

“Classical guitar seems to come in and out of fashion. I can remember seeing a classical guitar on television in the daytime, then it disappeared for a few years, and now it’s come back into fashion again.

“There’s never a shortage of people who want to learn guitar – most secondary schools have a classical teacher and an electric teacher.

“With guitar, you get more unique tones – from warmer ones to more harsh ones,” he adds.

The Stoke Newington Guitar Festival is at St Mary’s Church/St Mary’s Old Church, Stoke Newington Church Street, N16 9ES from 15-17 November