Sometimes, it just takes a bit of a push. After years of travelling the world, visiting experimental music festivals, Graeme Hopper decided it was time to bring it all back home. That was the start of Sunderland’s Boundaries Music Festival. Now in its fourth year, it occupies a growing niche in a city with a burgeoning music scene – despite offering artists who are worlds away from the radio-friendly rockers that frequent the Stadium of Light each summer.
“I was just getting bored of having to head here, there and everywhere to see the music that I like,” Graeme said. “It felt like almost every other city in Britain would have some sort of event or some interesting artists perform.
“So I got thinking. We have the infrastructure here: we’ve got good performance spaces in concert halls, churches, function rooms. There are hotels right alongside, transport links. Why can’t we have this here?”
‘When two artists I admire were into it, that gave me confidence’
The 2024 edition is the biggest yet, taking in four venues across town. It’s a step up from the opening year, held in a friend’s pub in a room rented out for mates’ rates. That was something of a baptism of fire, while Storm Arwen handing Sunderland its heaviest buffeting in decades, throwing schedules into chaos. “I thought ‘if I can get through this, I reckon I can make it work.’,” Graeme recalls. The following year, hoping to beat the weather, Boundaries moved to a summertime slot but struggled to compete with all the rival attractions of the holiday and wedding season.
Things really stepped up a notch in 2023, boosted by some National Lottery funding. “We had one or two big names in the experimental scene, like Jules Reidy and Crys Cole, two artists I really admire,” Graeme said. “They were so into it, and that gave me a bit of confidence. Also, having them on the line-up meant that other people took notice. They realised it wasn’t some small, local thing, we were thinking a bit outside the box.
“We had The Wire turn up and they wrote a really big review of it, really nice and complimentary. So now I’m on it, I want to do this every year.”
Similarly, the local scene is embracing the festival. Pop Recs, Sunderland’s hub of “Hunger. Melody. Decency” is a new venue for 2024. Set up by the late Dave Harper, drummer with local band Frankie & the Heartstrings, it has become a much-loved hub for the city’s cultural scene. Away from the festival, Graeme is part of that scene: his music appears under various names – including Feral Yon, Gee Rams Ensemble, Chlorine – and ranges from minimal acoustic compositions to “OTT wet crunch electronica”. As an artist, he has produced work for Philadelphia’s experimental musician and poet Moor Mother, as well as collaborating with Alison Cotton and other musicians.
Meanwhile, Sunderland Minster, in the heart of the city’s cultural quarter, was a space that Graeme very much wanted to access. “By year three I wanted to use the Minster because I wanted certain artists,” he said. “It’s not just that they are better known and would sell more tickets, it’s just that certain artists really suit a certain room, and I had that in mind.”
‘I want people turning up on the off chance and thinking ‘Wow!’
Although there’s been impressive progress with each year, this isn’t exactly Glastonbury. Ticket sales are counted in hundreds, rather than thousands and few of the artists are household names. The audience is built on die-hard experimental fans travelling to Sunderland for the event – and even the performers tend to be making one-off visits to play at Boundaries. This year, nine of the acts are coming for a one-off gig rather than building their show into a larger tour.
The relatively small size is a mixed blessing. “It can be a tough sell for local audiences because it’s not High Street music,” Graeme admitted. “But a lot of people understand that it’s not mainstream and they’re still interested.
“It’s baby steps, but what I want, especially locally, is for people to turn up on the off chance and be left feeling ‘Wow! What did we just see?’ Maybe we can inspire someone to buy an instrument, learn to use a synth or something.”
At the same time, small venues make for intimate shows. That’s a buzz for artists and audiences. “After the first one, a fair few people keep returning,” Graeme added. “They’re not local, but they like how we do things. All the venues are a couple of minutes apart, it’s a no hassle event. Sometimes people aren’t sure about travel up here, but once they’re here they love how easy it is to get around the festival.”
‘I’ve been a fan since I was a teenager; it blows my mind to have him play 10 minutes from home’
One of the perks of organising your own festival is getting to book some of your personal heroes – and getting to spend time with them away from the concert stage.
“I’ve been a huge fan of Arnold Dreyblatt since I was a teenager,” Graeme said. “He’s a New York composer, part of the second wave of minimalist composers. The fact that he’s playing 10 minutes from my house just blows me away.
“I’m meeting him at the airport next week, I’ll take him out for a curry. It just blows my mind.”
And Dreyblatt is just part of an international line-up that makes a mockery of the occasional complaint that festivals here are dominated by the same handful of local acts. Boundaries also features Iranian sound artist Rojin Shafari, a young woman whose music is new to all but the most devoted followers of the experimental scene.
Then there’s Mohammad Syfkan, a Syrian Kurd who had to flee his beloved Aleppo and settled in Ireland. His bouzouki playing is a thing of joy – “quite euphoric ... he’ll get everyone up and dancing,” says Graeme. He’s had rave reviews supporting Irish folk sensation Lankum and headlines Friday’s opener at Pop Recs.
That same bill includes Mexican duo Concepcion Huerta and Gibrana Cervantes, who represent half of Amor Muere. They impressed Graeme at the Rewire festival in Den Haag earlier this year and he’s looking forward to introducing them to UK audiences.
“They just knocked me off my feet, so I looked them up. It turned out that two of them are based in Europe and were right up for doing a show,” he said. “You know how you can just tell when someone is just nice and genuine. I can’t wait for this one, I’m pretty sure that 99.9% even of loyal experimental heads won’t have heard these two. They’re so loud and powerful and original in what they do.”
Boundaries 2024 is on Nov. 22 and 23 at four venues across Sunderland. Tickets are just £15 for the weekend, or £10 for a day pass. For full details, and to book tickets, visit https://www.boundariesfest.com
