Cara Dillon — Upon A Winter’s Night: A Christmas Tradition Rooted in Wonder

Over the past decade, Upon A Winter’s Night has become much more than a Christmas tour. For many audiences, it has become part of Christmas itself, a much-loved annual tradition and a return, year after year, to music that offers space for reflection, wonder and connection.

Now, in its tenth anniversary year, Cara Dillon brings this celebrated show to Union Chapel once more: an evening of darkness and light, and the mystery at the heart of Christmas.

Released in 2016, and entering at number one on the Indie Album Charts, Upon A Winter’s Night quickly established itself as a distinctive and atmospheric way into Christmas. Drawing on Celtic hymns, ancient carols, traditional folk songs and original material, it reaches beyond the familiar sounds of the season towards something older, deeper and far more enduring.

There is a particular stillness at the heart of these songs: the darkness of winter, the promise of light, the joy of birth and renewal. Woven together with Dillon’s unmistakable voice and the moving musicality of her band, they create an evening that is both intimate and expansive.

For Dillon, that spiritual dimension remains central. Her relationship with this repertoire is deeply felt, and her voice brings an extraordinary clarity to music in which the sacred and the earthly have always existed side by side. It’s this combination that has made Upon A Winter’s Night such an essential part of Christmas for so many.

“Simple and stunning” - The Sunday Times

“An instant Christmas classic” – BBC

Description

Inspiring Space, Inspiring Lives

Union Chapel is an award winning music venue in Islington, North London. But it’s more than that, it’s Victorian Gothic architectural jewel, that’s still a working church, home to an incredible organ and the base for The Margins Project which works with people facing homelessness and isolation.

Coming to an event at Union Chapel supports the conservation and development of the building. Union Chapel operates as a charity dedicated to looking after the space and opening it to a diverse group of people. In the past 25 years the Chapel has gone from facing demolition to being Grade 1 listed and from being virtually abandoned to welcoming tens of thousands of visitors a year.

We have been voted London’s favourite venue in public polls an amazing three times, in 2002, 2012 and 2014.