Free Festival Stickers

We have two different types of stickers for this year’s festival – round instrument case stickers (10cm diameter) and rectangle window stickers (20cm x 5cm).

All artists performing at the festival will be given an instrument case sticker in their welcome pack, and we’ll have the window stickers on the merchandise stall at the festival.

Window Sticker

Instrument case sticker

As the festival is now here, we've removed the free sticker offer - the stickers will be available from the merchandise stall of the festival. Thanks to all who responded.

The festival site and the River Severn

In light of the flooding further down the River Severn, we feel it’s probably best to give you an update as to the current state of the river in Shrewsbury and the new festival site.

The river has been high (peaking at 3.4 meters at 5pm on 23rd July), BUT there has been no significant flooding in Shrewsbury, and we’ve avoided almost all of the water that has been causing problems further South.

Frankwell car park (in the centre of town near last years’ satellite camping area) was temporarily closed but has reopened this morning (24th July). One of the roads to the festival site was blocked due to water at the height of the flood, and an adjacent field to the showground flooded but the festival site escaped the water and is fine.

The water has dropped considerably since yesterday evening, and while still high, the water level is settling down.

Here are a couple of links to webcams from the town centre, these are both near the centre of town and focus on the river.

Welsh Bridge Webcam

Frankwell Quay Webcam

Festival t-shirts

Our festival shirts have arrived!

We chose Ethical Threads for our shirts, a company who source clothes from workplaces that meet international conventions on workers’ rights and who use Fairtrade certified organic cotton (from the Vasudah farming project in Madhya Pradesh, India)

The quality and finish on the shirts is superb and we have a range of styles and colours to choose from – these are straight out of the boxes, apologies for any creases!

Blue Small logo shirt

Brown Small Logo Shirt

Black Large Logo Shirt

Green M*A*S*H shirt (also available in fitted ladies sizes)

Childrens' shirt (no backprint)

2007 Folk Festival Schools Project

We’ve just completed our school project for 2007, we were in Oxon CofE Primary School between June 26th – 29th, and had a hugely successful and rewarding time with the pupils and staff from Oxon.

We had Emily, Sophy and Ian from 422 providing music and dance workshops to reception and years 1,2,3 and 5; and had Dave Hunt and Steve Rowley from Sunshine Arts working with years 4 and 6 on a Mummers play and various Caribbean elements including a tuk band, landship dance and playground games.

Friday afternoon saw performances from every school year - the weather held, parents were invited and every year put on a performance that was as memorable as it was enjoyable.

We started with some songs and playground games from Barbados which was followed by a Landship Dance (a performance which symbolizes and reflects the passage of ships through rough seas whilst having a dig at the British Navy!), which was in turn followed by a Tuk Band (authentic Caribbean band of two drums, penny whistle and bells).

Year 6 then performed the Oxon Mummers Play – a traditional Shropshire Mummers play that was adapted and now stands as a distinct play. Some great performances, lines (and costumes!) made the play a real hit with the audience.

422 then performed with the groups they had worked with over the week – we had (and needed) a sound engineer who provided PA for the audience of around 500 adults and children.

Emily, Sophy and Ian played and directed a number of excellent elements including social dances from years 5 & 3 (Belgian Clapping Dance, Virginia Reel, Circassian Circle), we had a clog dance from Yr 5, and we finished with everybody singing ‘Apples and Bananas’.

There were two highlights of 422s set, reception and yr 1 danced ‘Jump Jim Joe’ a simple social dance that grows exponentially with every verse, by the 5th verse the whole school was dancing with children and staff all together on the playground.

It was Year 2 who stole the show, with what can only be described as a spirited rendition of The Rattlin’ Bog – there’s no doubt that every single yr 2 pupil had a great time performing the song and it’s many verses!

The staff, pupils, musicians and organisers all had a fun and rewarding time over the week – as a festival we have committed to providing instruments to the school and a number of family tickets to the pupils and their parents, and we intend to continue our work in the future.

Our 2007 school project was funded by Awards for All (National Lottery), and we thank them for recognising the importance of the project and backing our bid.

Thank you to Dave, Steve, Emily, Sophy and Ian, the staff at Oxon for embracing the project and most of all the children who threw themselves into the week and made it memorable for all. Thanks!