Watch Chesterfield's youngest rock stars who busk in town centre and play at popular pub set to appear at music festival

Brooklyn and Rowan Humphries have been invited to perform at the Laybo's Fest 2024 – a music festival which will be hosted at Marshalls Sports Ground in Gainsborough on May 25 and May 26.

But the festival will not be the first live performance of talented siblings from Chesterfield – they first appeared at Shed Fest at Bottom Club in New Whittington when Brooklyn was eight and Rowan, five. They regularly play in Chesterfield town centre and local pub The Neptune.

Luke Humphries, Brooklyn’s and Rowan’s dad said: “It's going to be the biggest event the kids have ever done. We are very proud of them both. They love playing in front of a live audience. We go busking in Chesterfield often and we go to open mic on Sundays in The Neptune pub.

“Brooklyn practices every day for hours, she is very consistent. She loves classic rock and she often played ACDC and Guns and Roses songs. Her guitar hero is Angus Young. She now has a guitar model inspired by his guitar.

"Rowan has been doing drums for his sister for about a year and a half – he does not practice as much because he is still very young but we recently got him a drum set for which we were saving for a while and he absolutely loves it.”

Apart from practising at home, busking and playing in the pub, Brooklyn also attends Rock School at Real Time Music shop on Sundays. It is a weekly class for children who practice playing rock together.

Luke said: “Brooklyn's the youngest there by absolutely miles. They are teenage kids, most about 16 years old. She is roughly half their age. But she loves going there.”

The siblings often play in the town centre and recently impressed shoppers in Sheffield city centre.

Luke said: “People absolutely love them everywhere we go. It's like going around with celebrities. Sheffield was great. There must have been at one point, about 100 people standing around and everyone was singing along and cheering. For me to see that as a dad, it was incredible. I was so proud of them both.”

Brooklyn picked up interest in learning how to play rock songs on the guitar after watching The School of Rock film with her family. She got a guitar for her seventh birthday – and has been playing for the last two-and-a-half years.

Luke said: “Brooklyn loved it – the music in it and kids learning to play rock were really great. It inspired her and she wanted to play like them. We were messing with a guitar a little bit, learning basic stuff, I was watching YouTube to help her learn.”

Brooklyn started playing the guitar every day and soon became much better than her dad. Less than a year ago she also picked up singing and she now attends vocal lessons once a week after school, while her brother Rowan attends drumming lessons.

Luke said: “She was getting better and better and there came a point where I just couldn't teach her anymore because she was far better than me. She was singing a bit with her mum. But we are not musicians so there was a limit to what we could teach.

"Luckily we met a lot of lovely people and local musicians since they started playing – especially in The Neptune. They were giving Brooklyn some tips and it is a perfect place for us to go. It’s a lovely, vibrant music community and amazing musicians.

"We owe a lot to The Neptune because it means a lot that the children can perform in front of a real crowd weekly. When we were first looking for open mics and jams but many pubs said Brooklyn was too young and they would not let her play.”

Sally Ruane Davies, who runs The Neptune Beer Emporium with her husband Jay, said: “Brooklyn has been playing at the Neptune since we took over almost two years ago. It’s been great to see her confidence growing and her vocal and guitar skills getting better and better. She now plays with her little brother every week and they sound really great together. You can see they are getting more confident week. People at the pub love them. It’s great to have them and they are always welcome at the Neptune.”