Civil Nights – Noise of Art & Woodbridge Festival Launch New Spring Event
This May we launch Civil Nights, a 
spring multi-venue series. The new festival celebrates Thomas and John Clarkson, founders of historic civil rights campaigns against the slave trade and for global peace, who lived in Woodbridge. Friday 22 May launches a campaign for a place to celebrate their legacy. The festival runs from Friday 22 May to Sunday 14 June 2026.
Friday 22 May
Civil Nights Opening Weekend
Leee John Jazz Quartet and Support, St Mary’s Church Woodbridge, Market Hill, Suffolk IP12 4LP.
Tickets from £10 Eventbrite tickets here https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/civil-nights-leee-john-jazz-quartet-opens-new-woodbridge-festival-event-tickets-1985937980961
Further info www.woodbridgefestival.com
Leee John, the platinum-selling singer of British black music act Imagination, is headlining the launch of a new Woodbridge Festival event series in Suffolk. A virtuoso line-up at St Mary’s Church, Woodbridge, will see Leee John appear with his new Jazz Quartet, featuring Simple Minds drummer Mel Gaynor, Imagination and Sister Sledge pianist Dr. John Watson, Soweto Kinch and Jazz Warriors bassist Miles Danso and celebrated Saxophonist Dave Mansell.
The night launches a campaign to celebrate the legacy of Thomas and John Clarkson, who founded two of the world’s first civil rights movements; campaigning for the abolition of slavery and world peace. Events at St Mary’s Church, Woodbridge, where John Clarkson is buried, will book-end the three-week festival.
The opening night on 22 May celebrates the foundation of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, co-founded by Thomas Clarkson on 22 May 1787. It also launches a campaign to create a permanent place in Woodbridge where the Clarkson’s contribution to civil rights can be celebrated. The closing event, on Sunday 14 June, marks the 210th anniversary of the foundation of the world’s first peace movement; co-founded by the Clarksons on 14 June 1816.
Friday night’s event is followed by a Woodbridge Festival club night on Saturday 23 May at New Street Market with DJ Ben Osborne and VJ Girl In A T-shirt, plus guests to be announced.
Saturday 23 May Civil Nights Club Night
New Street Market, Woodbridge. Free Entry 6:30pm-11:00pm. Vinyl and Visuals with DJ Ben Osborne and VJ Girl In A T-Shirt and guests.
Following the biggest nights at New Street Market in 2025 and early 2026, Woodbridge Festival’s AV club night returns to NSM for a special Civil Nights edition. Join us for vinyl, visuals and voguing (other dance moves available) from 6.30pm.
Some Forthcoming Woodbridge Festival Events In Suffolk
Saturday 25 April, Earth Day Club Night, New Street Market, Woodbridge
Sunday 26 April, Afternoon DJ set Ben Osborne, The Thomas Wolsey, Ipswich
Saturday 2 May, Pouch (live) and DJ Ben Osborne, New Street Market, Woodbridge
Friday 22 May, Leee John Jazz Quartet, St Mary’s Church, Woodbridge
Saturday 23 May, Civil Nights Club Night, New Street Market, Woodbridge
Saturday 30 May, Sets On The Beach with DJ Ben Osborne, Beach Street Felixstowe.
Saturday 6 June, Civil Nights Day, Woodbridge
Sunday 14 June, Civil Nights, St Mary’s Church, Woodbridge
Saturday 20- Sunday 21 June, DJ Ben Osborne at First Light Festival, Lowestoft
Friday 26 June, New Street Market, Woodbridge
More to be announced.
Thank you and hope to see you soon,
