Cro Cro Land Festival pic: Julia Woollams

A new multi-stage indie music festival is coming to Croydon centre on April 6 to celebrate the area’s rich musical history that includes alumni such as David Bowie and Stormzy.

Cro Cro Land brings a hand-picked line up featuring more than 30 indie and alternative bands, with an emphasis on gender equality.

The idea for the festival came about by the Croydonist, a not-for-profit blog run by Julia Woollams and Angela Martin. It’s their mission to show Croydon in a positive light.

Organisers for Cro Cro Land Festival. Pic: Julia Woollams

Julia Woollams said: “We still see underrepresentation of women in many areas of the music industry, and some of the bigger festival line-ups are rather depressing when you see them ignoring the vast talent of female musicians out there.”

“We hope that our festival can help set an example as the norm to have a gender balance and it not be a gimmick”.

A percentage of Cro Cro Land’s ticket sales will be donated to the charity Lives Not Knives, a youth-led charity working to prevent knife crime, serious youth violence and anti-social behaviour as well as giving support and guidance to young people most in need.

The festival will also offer work experience for young people who have experienced social exclusion or have been victims or perpetrators of crime.

They will be given the opportunity to shadow professionals in public relations, marketing, sound engineering and stage management.

The Croydon-based charity has reached over 50,000 young people, delivering road shows in schools. It’s also campaigning to make youth violence education mandatory so that young people are aware of the dangers of knife crime and how it affects communities.

The event will be held at Urban Xchange, part of Lansdowne Hotel, which is a three-minute walk from East Croydon station.

Tickets are available at the Cro Cro Land Festival website for £26.00 general admission.