Aesthetica New Music Stage

Aesthetica New Music Stage comes to York Theatre Royal on Saturday 7 November, as part of the Aesthetica Film Festival. It's a competition and a showcase for emerging artists, and it sits within the festival's 'Beyond The Frame' programme, which looks at the crossover between screen culture, performance and music. Aesthetica is running it in collaboration with TALENTBANQ, Caffè Nero and Beggars Group.

The whole thing is built around the idea of music as a narrative force in storytelling, whether that's through film scores or live performance. The competition is open to a broad range of genres — hip hop, grime, soul, spoken word, indie, folk and alt-pop are all in the mix — so the line-up tends to pull from quite different corners of the scene rather than sticking to one sound. Ten finalists each play a 20-minute set, and the winner is decided by a combination of an industry jury, which counts for 80%, and the audience vote, which makes up the other 20%.

The prize is more than just a trophy: the winner gets £1,000 in cash, mentorship from Beggars Group and TALENTBANQ, and the chance for their music to be played across UK Caffè Nero locations. Along with the performances, there's an industry panel that shares some insight into the current music landscape, so it's as much about the business side of things as it is about the music on stage.

It's on Saturday 7 November at York Theatre Royal, YO1 7HD. If you're into seeing new artists before they've hit the bigger circuits, this is one of the better ways to catch a few in one go.