By Jessica McDonald
Swindon musical challenger Shaun Buswell (creator of the Underground Orchestra & EdFringe orchestra) will be performing on five stages at Glastonbury festival this year including opening one of the main stages, the famous Glade stage, with his unique orchestra.
Shaun Buswell’s Pilton Pop-up Orchestra (named after the Pilton Pop¬†Festival - the original Glastonbury festival) is a truly unique act as¬†it will be the only time¬†this particular group of musicians will work together as an entity.
The orchestra has been formed from professional musicians attending the festival, who will be performing a repertoire of original Folk-estral compositions and some covers.
Their first performance will be opening the Glade stage at 11.30am on¬†Friday which will include a special Foo Fighters cover as a ‘get well’¬†tribute to the bands front man Dave Grohl.
The second performance will take place on the Saturday of the festival on the Greenpeace stage at 12noon, followed by a further performance that day on the Lost Horizon stage at 2pm.
On the Sunday they will be performing at the Rabbit Hole at 12pm and also at a secret VIP backstage area at 2pm with special guests The Cadbury Sisters, Nick Harper and Ellie Rose.
Shaun commented “I’m humbled to be given the opportunity to open the Glade¬†Stage on Friday morning. It’s a festival with a huge heart and a great¬†focus on community spirit, so I can’t think of a better place to bring¬†together groups of strangers to perform as the Pilton Pop-up Orchestra.
“What started out as performing just 4 songs at a secret location has¬†spiralled into performing 5 shows throughout the festival, including¬†opening one of the main stages. I hope it goes to show that hard work¬†can pay off.”
Shaun is well known for his musical challenges: in 2012 he created The Underground Orchestra - an orchestra made up of musicians he met as strangers amongst the daily mayhem of travelling on the London Underground, which featured in the news worldwide.
Last year he formed The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Orchestra (EdFringe Orchestra) in just 10 days whilst there performing his  Dave Gorman-esque talks about his orchestra challenges, this was covered in a documentary by the BBC.
Earlier this year he carried out a busker orchestra challenge for Decca Records which has recently been covered by the Guardian in the UK and Australia, which can be viewed here.
A 10 minute documentary of the challenge is below along with the final video of the busker orchestra performing the song:
Geronimo Challenge - The Story - Behind the Scenes
Music Vid - Geronimo (Busking Version)
Shaun comments, ‚ÄúFor Glastonbury Festival I’ve spent the past 2 months¬†writing and arranging over 500 pieces of music, all for just 3 hours of¬†performance. It might seem like a lot of work, but I like to measure¬†life in memories, not time, so for me it’s been completely worth it.
“I’m bowled over by the huge response I’ve had for the Glastonbury¬†challenge. Hundreds of e-mails have flown by over the last month and I¬†can’t wait to see the results of all this hard work and organising.”
Shaun is also returning to the Edinburgh Festival this August for a full run of the festival with his Orchestra Challenges talks.
For more information visit: www.orchestrachallenge.com
Follow on Twitter:@underorchestra