20th Anniversary Celebrations
Batala Lancaster was founded in 2004. Find out more about the band’s history and how we’ll be celebrating our anniversary this year
History of Batala Lancaster
Scroll through the timeline below to find out more about the history of the band.
In 1997, Bahian percussionist Giba Gonçalves created the first chapter in Paris of what has become Batala Mundo, a worldwide project promoting and sharing Afro-Brazilian percussion, specifically samba-reggae, which originates from Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.
Adrian Todd founded a drumming band called Dead Beats in Bentham.
Adrian then started travelling to practice with Batala Bangor, and fell in love with the samba sound.
The band joined the international Batala project and moved their practices to Lancaster shortly afterwards.
Yorkshire Three Peaks
As a publicity and charity fundraising activity, nine Batala Lancaster drummers carried their drums over the 24 miles of the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, drumming on each summit. They were joined by the rest of the band on Ingleborough, the last summit, for an open air gig.
The challenge raising funds for a local charity, the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust.
The band carried their drums up the Ingleton Falls path to Thornton Force, where the River Twiss falls 14 metres over a limestone cliff, and waded into the waters of the river to play under the famous Ingleton Falls with its amphitheatre of rock as a backdrop.
Members of the band climb Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon within 24 hours, carrying their drums up Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa) to meet sister bands for an open air gig on the summit.
Encontro is an annual event in the Batala calendar, started by Batala La Rochelle in 2004. It helps members get to know others from their sister bands around the world.
2015 was Lancaster's turn to host, and as part of the weekend, a 250-strong band played on Morecambe Promenade
As part of our Encontro weekend, 25 Lancaster drummers escorted 100 guest Mundo drummers from seven countries and two continents to the summit of Stoney Cove Pike for a mass open-air gig with the Helvellyn range of mountains as a backdrop.
As a sponsored charity fundraiser, we carried our drums from Ribblehead Viaduct over Whernside and Ingleborough, drumming on each summit and then returning to Ribblehead, and were joined by guest Mundo drummers for the challenge.
We launched our logo featuring the county's red rose, Lancaser's Ashton Memorial and some iconic Batala hand-calling symbols.
We made our first appearance at the world’s biggest festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
A core of 16 Lancaster players, alongside members of sister bands from Mersey, Bermo, Bangor, London, Bristol, Barcelona, Austria, and Portsmouth, played at the city’s Mound Circle.
We celebrated our 15th birthday with the theme ‘River Deep Mountain High’.
Members of the band carried their drums up Helvellyn in strong winds to gig on the summit on the Saturday and then a larger number carried their drums up Ingleton Falls on the Sunday to gig alongside a raging torrent falling over the waterfall after heavy overnight rain.
We launched our new logo to mark the start of our anniversary year. Designed by band member Claire Keeley, the logo features our city's iconic Ashon Memorial and Castle alongside traditional Batala symbols shared by the rest of our Mundo family.
Lancaster players joined players from around the world for Batala Mundo's debut performance at the St Patrick's Day Parade, where they were awarded Best Performance.
On 21 June, over 30 members of Batala Lancaster, joined by members of Batala Mersey, Batala Bangor, Batala Manchester and Batala Austria, carried their drums up from Kirkstone Pass to Stony Cove Pike, where they drummed above the Lakeland Fells.
We brought a 100-piece Batala Mundo band to headline World Music Day at Lancaster Music Festival 2024 on 13 October as part of our 20th birthday celebrations.
We were joined by dancers led by Louise of Northbound Dance.
Events to celebrate our 20th anniversary
Mountain Adventure Drum
To celebrate our 20th Anniversary year, we carried our drums up from Kirkstone Pass to Stony Cove Pike, where we drummed above the Lakeland Fells.
We were joined by Mundo drummers from Batala Mersey, Batala Bangor, Batala Manchester and Batala Austria.
See our photo gallery and read more about the mountain drum.
Celebration weekend
Our celebrations continued in October with Batala drummers from around the UK joining us in Lancaster for a huge celebration, including a party and rehearsal.
Our weekend culminated in a gig at Lancaster Castle, where we played two sets, headlining Lancaster Music Festival’s World Music Day.