25 April 2026, Sussex
YOUR GUEST MUSICIAN, HOST & NIGHTINGALE
Nessi Gomes is a British-Portuguese songwriter born on the island of Guernsey. Her music doesn’t try to lift you above life. It walks you straight into it. She writes with a quiet intensity, where beauty sits beside fear, where longing doesn’t ask to be solved, and where the darker corners are given air, not shame.
The Nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) is a small, brown, unremarkable-looking bird, but they possess one of nature’s finest singing voices. The English population winters in Sub-Saharan Africa in the western countries like Sierra Leon and Senegal, returning to the very same thicket they were born in arriving in early to mid-April. They spend April to the end of May mating and nesting where we can encounter the extraordinary display of the males’ courtship song, famous for his all-night broadcast.
Sam is a folksinger, song collector, activist, nature conservationist, guide, and presenter. With three critically acclaimed albums - his debut receiving a Mercury Music Prize nomination - he works holistically in challenging the sound and purpose of our indigenous music in the 21st Century.