Projects

Lowestoft Jazz Weekend 2025

In September 2025, Loyal Friend Projects brought together a committee of arts practitioners and jazz specialists to deliver a series of cultural events across North Lowestoft, to provide a revised and rejuvenated iteration of Lowestoft Jazz Weekend.

Our four-day programme brought internationally-renowned names from the jazz world to under-utilised venues in Lowestoft for a series of electrifying headline performances across the town, alongside a high-quality showcase of local talent.

Headline acts included The Pete Roth Trio feat. Bill Bruford at Lowestoft Sixth Form College; Kit Downes & Tom Challenger at St Margaret’s Church; Polly Gibbons for Milestones Jazz Club at the Hatfield Hotel.

Our mixed programme aimed to boost the profile of Lowestoft as a destination for high-quality cultural performance; to increase uptake across the diverse and multi-generational communities of this particular area; and to highlight the creativity and accomplishments of local talent from across Lowestoft at a grassroots level.

The Weekend proved a huge success: engagement was high, and the event will be returning in 2026.

  • Loyal Friend Projects was pleased to receive funding from East Suffolk Council and Lowestoft Town Council for the provision of Lowestoft Jazz Weekend 2025.

  • Delivered.

  • The project was delivered within budget.

Who Might You Meet In The Mayfly?

The Mayfly is a community and arts café in Lowestoft High Street. It was set up at the end of 2023 with the aim of bringing life back to the area by renovating a disused Edwardian shop.

Our aim here is to explore and record the way in which the development of the cafe has sparked new connections between the diverse individuals living roundabout and those beyond. We will celebrate the Mayfly’s first year - how the physical space has been transformed but more importantly how spontaneous interactions have led to longer-lasting relationships and both social and cultural change. 

We will create a record of this journey and what the future may hold. We will create an archive of video and audio, capturing one-on-one interviews, conversations, profiles, and moments, and featuring the stories of the diverse customer and volunteer base of the café - stories which will otherwise never be recorded, but are nonetheless of vital importance to the wider story of Lowestoft in our times.

  • This project is as yet unfunded.

  • Active

Lowestoft Exports

Lowestoft Exports is primarily a public-awareness campaign which aims to replace negative perceptions of the town with a new, positive, impression. Billboard advertising will be employed to display large-format posters detailing examples of world-leading output from Lowestoft in the industrial, commercial, and creative sectors. The emphasis here will be on current output, and the continuing importance of the town on the global stage.

The project will employ local artists to produce the necessary advertising materials, and a public exhibition will follow.

  • This project is as yet unfunded.

  • Active