The Encontro Street Band Festival

08/02/2026

Hello friends of the Glasgow Encontros!

You will ALL remember SambaYaBamba Youth Band, when they put themselves firmly on the international map of street bands as they welcomed you to Glasgow over SEVERAL years?

Now, they need YOUR help!

In 2026, celebrating 10 fantastic years of SambaYaBamba Youth, they are excited to continue their work and are fundraising to help with this.

We have under 24 hours left of this fundraising campaign, and wanted to extend a plea for help from all our amazing Encontro bands, friends, supporters & general lovers of joy!

PLEASE donate if you can, share / comment / spread the word, so that we can all support the next generation to join us in what we all love doing :)
Getinabootit!!!!!

Photo credit: Monique Lara-Lise

Help us make SambaYaBamba Youth Street Band bigger, louder and open to more young folk across Glasgow

30/03/2022

Hello !! Hope you're all doing grand?

Wee favour.... our friends SambaYaBamba Youth Street Band are looking for another 55 people to donate, even £1 to their Crowdfunder, and aim to reach £15,000 donations ASAP to unlock another £5000 from Creative Scotland to help keep the youth band going.

If you can donate even £1, and leave a comment / share on social media - THIS WILL HELP THEM HUGELY!

Massive thanks !

Crowdfunder Creative Scotland

To continue providing FREE, inclusive, fun and accessible carnival style music sessions for young people in Glasgow, improving wellbeing

14/03/2022

SambaYaBamba are raising funds for their amazing youth band, please help them by donating if you can, and sharing this with people in your communities

Drums & Brass Total YAAASS!!

Can you help us?

Drums & Brass Total YAAASS!

We're fundraising to keep the amazing SambaYaBamba Youth Street Band going - and YOU can help by donating here https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/drums-brass-total-yaaass-sambayabamba-youth

Photo credits: Monique Lara-Lise

AND the great news is .....Our project is part of the Creative Scotland Crowdmatch - we are 1 of 20 shortlisted creative projects in Scotland - that have the opportunity to win a share of £75,000 in match funding, up to £10,000 per project.

This will make a HUGE difference to our Youth Band, so please donate if you can, and share this widely

Thank you from the SYB Youth Team

26/05/2020

Lovely to see loads of street band friends in this crackin' wee film! Volume up 🤘

13/05/2020

More online fun & games for rhythm 'n' dance fans! Still time to get involved... Kid (and big kid) friendly home learning!

** OPEN INVITE FOR ANYONE & EVERYONE TO GET INVOLVED IN OUR NEXT FLM! ** All you need to do learn this simple body rhythm, film yourself and send it to us by...

06/05/2020

Our pals in Edinburgh, making new music with their youth street band Brass Blast! 👌✍️🤘

Huge thanks to MCs J B Seal and Thomasthesearchengine. Congratulations to the young team for making new beats & original melodies, without knowing how the tr...

09/04/2020

A wee hello and a boogie from SambaYaBamba's very own Janine! Hope you're all doing ok out there :)

SambaYaBamba dancer Janine doing a wee dance warm up for us to the SYB tune Biscuits. Title tune by SambaYaBamba Youth Street Band.

03/03/2020

We’re sad there’s no festival this year...but it doesn’t mean we can’t reminisce on the last couple of festivals!🤩
This photo is of La Tromba who are coming back to the UK with their first gig in Edinburgh on the 20th of March with BALKANARAMA

📷: Graham Wynne Photography

22/02/2020

14/11/2019

** Encontro 2020 Update **
Please share the following news – the Encontro Street Band festival will be taking a break in 2020. This decision is based on a big range of factors, most notably that dates for cultural activity in Glasgow’s Merchant City are shifting next year to align with the UEFA 2020 football championships. This poses difficulties / date clashes for us and our wider Encontro team. With the full support of Merchant City Festival we have made the decision to take a break, and take the opportunity to create a bit of breathing space for further development of our festival in the coming years.

We’ll miss all the on-street celebrations, colour & spectacle - and we’ll especially miss our chance to gather with the wondrous street band community for a BIG weekend of music. But the good news is we’ll be recharging, re-energising and then BACK with a BANG in 2021!

Please share widely with your networks. And please stay in touch with us as we look ahead to a bright future for street band music in Scotland, the British Isles, Europe and beyond!

Much love.
Gaynor & Oli