A FOUR-hour festival of music was staged at Burnholme Community College at the weekend.

The assembly hall hosted the Tang Hall Big Gig which featured up-and-coming local acts in rock, pop, soul and rap whose music spanned all age groups from14 to 50-plus.

The event was organised by Tang Hall SMART Ltd, a social enterprise due to deliver arts, technology sports activities and courses from September.

Its director Sue Williamson said before the event: “The gig is part of a national event, Our Big Gig, and there are 150 similar community music festivals taking part over the same weekend. Our event is supported by Superact, who organise Our Big Gig, Tang Hall Big Local and the Performing Right Society, and it’s a fantastic example of how, when communities work together, exciting things happen.”

Sue fought to defend the doomed college from closure, but when it was decided the doors should close for good she opted to take redundancy rather than be redeployed to another teaching job in York.

She lives just around the corner in Hull Road, Tang Hall, and has become the first to launch a social enterprise project in her former workplace, using the music room as the hub for her school of rock.