Over the last couple of weeks residents in Bishopston and surrounding areas have been treated to the sweet sounds of the harp being played in their streets!

Talented harpist, Scarlett Smith, has been touring the local area and giving live community concerts on roads, driveways and little green areas.  Scarlett has been entertaining residents by playing beautiful, relaxing harp music, ranging from classical to pop, with each set lasting around 30 minutes.

One resident describes listening to Scarlett play: “I listened to Scarlett a couple of times during her BS6 tour, it made all the difference to an otherwise miserable lockdown. Her music was beautiful, it’s actually hard to believe that one person can be so talented”.

Scarlett started playing the harp when she was 7 years old; there was a harp teacher at her school and when a friend of hers started playing the harp, this inspired her to also learn.  She explains: “I think my friend gave up when she was around 10, and I kept going and I’m so glad. When I was around 12/13 and moved schools I realised how rare it was and my love for it has just continued to grow and grow over the years!”

Scarlett decided to do a tour for residents of Bishopston and beyond when all her gigs were cancelled and postponed due to lockdown and covid-19 restrictions.

She explains: “I just really missing playing to real people! I’ve done quite a bit of busking before in Broadmead, but felt like this was a bit pointless when all the shops were closed. I thought about going to a park, but was worried this might encourage crowding, so then I came up with the idea of just taking requests from people for different spots near them they thought would work well, so I could take my music to them rather than getting everyone to come to me in a single spot.”

Scarlett describes being over “overwhelmed” by positive feedback from people: “I honestly feel so lucky that everyone has been so supportive!”

Upcoming dates that Scarlett will be playing in the local area are as follows:

Friday 10th July:
Church Road, 6pm
Quarrington Road, 7pm
Grittleton Road, 6pm

Saturday 11th July:
Monk Road 4pm
Longmead Avenue, 5pm
Falmouth Road, 6pm

Sunday 12th July:
Wentworth Road, 4pm
Willoughby Road, 5pm

Scarlett’s harp community concerts are available on request – please message her on her facebook page to do this: https://www.facebook.com/BristolHarpist/.  Here, you will also see weekly updates for more new community concerts.