Line-up for 2011

Confirmed line-up includes

CONCERTS
The Imagined Village
Cara Dillon
The Cecil Sharp Project
Oysterband (and special guests)
Bellowhead (a late night show this year)
Show of Hands
Kepa Junkera Band
17 Hippies
Turtle Duhks
Home Service
Martin Simpson Band
Demon Barber Roadshow
Spiers & Boden (and a S&B ceilidh)
Gerry O’Connor Trio Chris Wood & Andy Cutting (+ Chris solo)
Breabach
John Tams & Barry Coope
The Sweetback Sisters
Martyn Joseph
Reg Meuross
Jim Moray
Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman
Caroline Herring
Sam Carter
Brooks Williams
Walsh & Pound
Calan
Uiscedwr
Lucy Ward
Pilgrims Way
Johnny Dickinson
The Wilsons
BabaJack
The Younguns
Kimber’s MenLady Maisery
Bad Anna
Flaxenby
BarlowCree
George Papavgeris & Los Marbles (+ solo)

DANCE BANDS
Hekety
PolkaWorks
Spiers and Boden
Glorystrokes
Grand Union
Chalktown

MORRIS
Hammersmith Morris
Redbornstoke Morris
Shropshire Bedlams
Martha Rhoden’s Tuppeny DishNewcastle Kingsmen
Outside Capering CrewSaving.....

Martin Simpson Band at SFF 2011

We’re pleased to be able to add The Martin Simpson Band to the line-up for 2011.

Multi BBC Folk Award winner, Martin is one of the finest acoustic finger-style and slide guitar players anywhere in the world.

The band members are Andy Cutting, BJ Cole, Andy Seward and Keith Angel, and bringing all these talents together will make this a memorable show for Shrewsbury.

Reg Meuross confirmed for SFF 2011

One of Britain’s finest singer songwriters with a high tenor voice described as “the best this side of the Atlantic”.

Reg has had a long illustrious career in the music industry beginning as one of the Panic Brothers with Richard Morton and moving on when Reg formed a band called the Flamingos, a veritable super group with ex Graham Parker guitarist Martin Belmont, Bob Loveday from The Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Alison Jones of The Barely Works.

Reg will be supported at Shrewsbury Folk Festival by young cellist Bethany Porter, who has worked with Peter Gabriel, Kula Shaker, Bellowhead, Jim Moray, Jackie Oates, Bath Symphony Orchestra and many more.

Expect something very special.

Gerry “Banjo” O’Connor to perform at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2011

Gerry O'Connor may be the single best four string banjoist in the history of Irish Music.

His phenomenal technique and effortless virtuosity reminds audiences of American five string banjo players like Bela Fleck and Alison Brown.

If ever a musician truly 'owned' the instrument he plays Gerry O'Connor 'owns' the four - string banjo.

A member of Four Men and a Dog, he will be performing with his fantastic trio at Shrewsbury in August.

The Turtle Duhks & Footworks

We’re proud to announce a real exclusive for Shrewsbury in 2011.

You may remember that Leonard Podolak came over from Canada with the Duhks a couple of years ago, and was very well received by all.

Lenny is still playing with the Duhks, but is bringing over his Turtle Duhks for SFF 2011.

As a special treat for Shrewsbury, he is bringing a team of dancers from the Canada called Footworks.

The music is rooted firmly in the tradition of Appalachia, and is performed with the groove and drive of rock'n'roll, Celtic music, jazz and funk. But expect something extra special when the dancers add their percussive beat to the performance.

We’ll have Leonard over here in March as part of our Cecil Sharp Project, and the project will also have a big performance at the festival in August.

more artists added for 2011

more new artists booked for 2011 include...

The Imagined Village
The Sweetback Sisters
Lucy Ward
Calan
Johnny Dickinson
Uiscedwr
Sam Carter
Badanna
..more to follow.

Tickets on sale NOW!

Tickets for the 2011 festival are on sale now.

As usual there is a mixture of weekend and day tickets available, (with weekend tickets at the earlybird rate until 31 March 2011).

Full details on prices etc here

We're still finalising the line-up, but some of the artists already confirmed are

Bellowhead (a late night show this year)
Show of Hands
Oysterband (and special guests)
Cara Dillon
Kepa Junkera Band
Chris Wood & Andy Cutting (AND Chris solo)
Martyn Joseph
The Cecil Sharp Project
Breabach
Demon Barber Roadshow
Jim Moray
17 Hippies
Spiers & Boden (AND a Spiers & Boden ceilidh)
Caroline Herring
Polkaworks
Hekety
Mr Gubbins Bicycle
..we'll announce more as we confirm them.

Hope House Donations

As a festival we're proud that we support Hope House Hospice with a donation from every adult ticket sale, but we're equally proud that you also make donations over the weekend....here's a copy of a press release we're sending out today that tells the full story.

Hope House Hospice is celebrating an early Christmas present from Shropshire’s biggest music festival which has helped to raise nearly £5,400 for the charity at this year's event.

Organisers of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival, held at the West Mid Showground over August Bank Holiday weekend, have made their annual donation of £1 for every adult ticket sold to the Morda hospice and handed over £3,600 recently.

Coupled with £1796 raised on the weekend from a bucket collection outside the main music marquees, donations raised from a stall at the festival and donations by festival goers who wanted electrical equipment charging, a total of £5,396 was raised for Hope House.

It is the third year that the festival has supported Hope House and so far £14,889 has been donated to support the hospice's music therapy service.

Festival Director Alan Surtees said the organising committee had been delighted with the amount raised.

He said: 'Yet again, the festival goers showed their generosity with their continuing support of the Hope House collection and by visiting its stall on the showground.

'Every year, we have a fantastic four days focused on music and that's why I think we continue to raise a great amount of money for Hope House. People recognise the enjoyment music brings to their life during the festival and want the children who use Hope House to be able to share in that.

'We have pledged to continue supporting Hope House and its music therapy service and hope we'll be able to raise even more money in 2011!'

Hope House Fundraising Manager Vanessa Thomas said: 'Music is a huge part of life at Hope House and benefits the children in many forms, from sessions with our music therapist, to singing along to favourite tunes; from toddlers banging drums to teenagers laying down tracks. Music brings pleasure to everyone and is a lovely way for children to make themselves heard.

'We're really pleased to be part of the festival and want to thank everyone who has supported us with a donation.'

Hive Concerts

Upcoming Hive concerts

Ade Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds - Rise

Ade Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds got the festival off to a great start with a storming set on the main stage on Friday night...here's a clip of 'Rise' from the middle of their show.

getting closer....

Just a short note to let you know that the plans are in full swing for 2011 - we're in the process of booking acts for the festival; but as is normal, it takes a little time for it all to come together.

We hope to have almost everything completed in the next couple of weeks though, so keep checking in here, on Twitter of Facebook, and hopefully there will be something to announce soon!

October update

I know it's quiet on the blog, but September and October are our two quietest months of the year - it's here we take our holidays, head off to conferences and generally recharge our batteries.

We're looking at the line-up for 2011 now, and expect have everything signed and sealed by sometime in December. We'll let you know a few names in advance when things are falling into place...

As many of you know we are hosting 10 shows at the Hive in Shrewsbury, it's an intimate 100 seat arts centre and perfect for folk concerts.

We started in September with Jackie Oates, and the upcoming shows are

24 Oct Crooked Still (sold out)
21 Nov Kris Drever
12 Dec Bella Hardy
9 Jan Jez Lowe
13 Feb Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings
13 Mar Chris Wood
10 Apr Rua MacMillan Trio and Ewan Robertson
8 May Martyn Joseph
21 Jun Rachael McShane Band

Tickets for all are available from the venue on 01743 234970.

Crooked Still has already sold out and a few others are getting close - please don't leave it too late if you'd like to come to these shows!

BBC Radio Shropshire

As many of you will know we have close links with our local BBC Radio station over the festival weekend.

Jim Hawkins, the presenter of the weekday morning show was around and about at the festival over the weekend, and on Monday he recorded a 10 minute piece that captured the atmosphere of the festival perfectly.

It’s available to listen to here

Thanks to Jim and the BBC for this feature, and allowing us to host this on our blog.

Festival Videos

We've been working through the DVDs of the main stage performances and over the coming weeks and months will be adding more clips to our YouTube site

Videos already uploaded include

Dervish & Moya Brennan - Two Sisters
Richard Shindell - Arrowhead
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan - Queen of Waters
Bellowhead - New York Girls

If there are any particular clips of the main stage that you'd like to see then let us know and we'll see what we can do!

End of Festival Survey

Bellowhead finished their set just over 12 hours ago,and we'll soon be thinking about 2011.

But before we do that, we hope you had a fantastic festival and we'd like your comments and thoughts on the last four days.

This year there are two ways to leave your thoughts, we have an

Official Festival Survey

that has replaced the old paper feedback form - there's lots of space for extended comments should you wish to leave any!

And of course we'd love you to comment here on the blog. We'll read every single comment that is left on both the blog and the official survey.

Over to you....

Webcast schedule

SP Holding Main Stage Broadcast Schedule

Click here to watch

Friday Evening
19.30 - 19.35 Welcome song with Owen Lewis
19.35 - 20.35 Adrian Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds
20.45 - 21.45 Lucy Kaplansky
22.00 - 23.30 The Michael McGoldrick Big Band

Saturday Afternoon
13.00 - 13.30 Oleg Ponomarev’s Koshka
13.45 - 14.45 Drever McCusker Woomble with Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine
14.55 - 15.50 Richard Shindell
16.00 - 17.00 Karen Matheson Band

Saturday Evening
19.30 - 20.30 Adrienne Young
20.40 - 21.45 Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky
22.00 - 23.30 Dervish & guests

Sunday Afternoon
12.45 - 13.45 The Old Dance School
13.55 - 14.55 Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
15.05 - 15.50 Chuck Brodsky
16.00 - 17.00 Genticorum

Sunday Evening
19.30 - 20.30 Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling
20.35 - 21.35 Billy Bragg
22.00 - 23.30 Afro Celt Sound System

Monday Afternoon
13.00 - 13.55 Mawkin:Causley
14.05 - 15.05 Hans Theessink
15.15 - 16.15 John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
16.30 - 18.00 Bellowhead

Getting here.....

Nearly there!

The set up team have been working hard over the whole week, and lots weekend stewards will be arriving tomorrow in preparation for final briefings early on Friday morning.

We missed most of the rain today, and only had an hour or so of showers from 4pm onwards. The site is in great condition and the weather for the festival looks fine - it always gets a little chilly in the evenings though, so don't forget something warm!

Our main website has full directions to the festival site, and the AA signs will be in place tomorrow, but for those travelling under the guidance of SatNav, the GPS co-ords are

N 52° 43.020
W 002° 45.742

(if you copy these into Google Earth, they take you to within a few feet of one of entrances)

and the 'real' address is

West Mid Showground
Berwick Road
Shrewsbury
SY1 2PF

Hope you all have a safe journey, and we'll see you over the weekend!

Site set up

The site set up has been in full swing, and we're well on track to be ready ahead of Friday.

All the main marquees are built and the stages in place - lighting will be in place soon and the sound guys were arriving on site as I left. Over the next 36hours everyone will be working hard to finish the build.

If you pre-booked a yurt, then the above picture shows them in the process of being built, I had a peek inside one that was finished and it looked great!

A message from Cara

Hi Everyone.

I am so very sorry for not being able to perform at the Festival this weekend. I'm currently seven and a half months pregnant and have been advised by my doctors that I shouldn't attend.

Some of you may already be aware of what happened last time I performed when I was this pregnant... I went into labour onstage and gave birth not long after the concert...so for all our sakes I wouldn't want anything like that happening again.

I thought I might be up to it, hence the lateness of the announcement, however, the decision has been sensibly forced upon me by my consultants.

I am very disappointed that I won't be there, but I understand that I may be appearing next year.

Here's wishing you all have great craic and enjoy the music. I'll be thinking of you and watching online with my swollen feet up.

Much love
Cara x

Cara Dillon / Karen Matheson Band

Cara Dillon

We're disappointed to inform you that due to illness, Cara will not be able to appear at the festival this year.

Cara is 8 months pregnant and unwell, and has been advised to rest by her doctor, making her trip to Shrewsbury not possible.

While this is disappointing, the safety of Cara and baby are more imporatant than a single show, and we understand the situation and wish Cara and Sam well for the coming months. We'll do everything we can to bring Cara to Shrewsbury in 2011.

Karen Matheson Band

We're pleased to announce that Cara's Saturday afternoon slot on the main stage (4pm - 5pm) will be filled by Karen Matheson and her fantastic band.
The lead singer of Capercaillie is a natural fit for Cara's slot, as she occupies similar musical ground covering both traditional and contemporary song.

This will be Karen's first English festival appearance this year with her full band, and a coup for Shrewsbury - while we're understandably disappointed that Cara can't make her show, we're excited to have such a high profile act playing at the festival.

Weather Weather Weather Weather - what's it going to do?

Watching the forecast on Metcheck is always fun - the festival week has been changeable for the 7 days or so but it's beginning to settle down, so here's the forecast as of 1pm Friday 20 August.

You can click the forecast to take you to an up-to -date 14 forecast for the site at any time.

Looking good though, and if anything the nights are looking a little warmer than usual.

Free Wi-Fi on the festival site

Last year we had a small pocket of free wi-fi on the festival site, it worked perfectly but had limited range.

This year the technical team of Charles & Heather, have set up a system that covers the whole site.

So wherever you are on the site, you will be able to pick up emails and browse the internet for FREE!

The SFF Pork Pie!

Once again, we're proud to team up with Boxfresh Organics again this year - we believe we have the best festival shop anywhere with a unique range of fresh food and provisions, and this year they’ve extended their product range.

So in addition to freshly baked breads delivered fresh every morning, a full range of organic meats (including everything for breakfast) and more; this year they’ve added a range of pork pies from Simply Pies in Whitchurch, and there’s an exclusive Shrewsbury Folk Festival Pie (pork and Shropshire Blue cheese) you’ll be able to try!

See you in the queue!

Programmes

The festival programmes have been printed and delivered, and if you pre-ordered one then it should be delivered in the next couple of days.

If you haven't pre-ordered one, then from early next week, you will be able to pick a copy up from the tourist information centre in Shrewsbury (next to Rowley's House). UPDATE - have dropped the programmes off should you wish to call in and buy one.

Time to start planning your festival weekend.......

Dervish and special guests

On Saturday night, Irish legends Dervish are playing the mainstage - but you may have noticed they're billed as Dervish and special guests.

We can confirm that they will have 4 fantastic guests with them, and they are...

It should be quite a night, we're looking forward to hearing what the band and all-star guest list come up with!

2010 Map

The programme has now been signed off and will be printed soon - as ever there's a map in the back, but here's a copy for you to have a look at now and to see how we've laid the site out this year.

Tuneworks at SFF

We're really proud of the variety of sessions that happen at Shrewsbury, Izzy and his team do a fantastic job at organising these and they always end up being a highlight for anyone who takes part or even just wanders in and listens!

Here are the details of the Tuneworks sessions that will be held at the festival this year....


Tuneworks Beginners Session

This session uses the beginners tunebook available on the festival

website - from the homepage follow the link to Tune Workshops. The

tunes are all tried and tested session standards and are backed up

with some audio files that will give you an idea of the speed. The

idea is that you learn them at home ready for the session. We will

play plenty of repetitions of each tune allowing you to get them

firmly under your fingers in a session environment. Bring your own

tunebook!


Tuneworks Improvers Session

This session uses the improvers tunebook available on the festival

website - from the homepage follow the link to Tune Workshops. With a

wider range of tunes that incorporates those learned in the beginners

sessions, the pace will be slower than at a normal tune session,

giving learning musicians the chance to practice in a larger session

environment. These sessions have been great fun in the past and we

look forward to sharing a tune with friends old and new! Bring your

own tunebook!


Tuneworks Follow On Beginners/Improvers

Last year, many musicians wanted to keep playing after the beginners

and improvers sessions so if you make your way to the Tuneworks

noticeboard in the food tent you'll probably find a gang of fellow

tune addicts ready to kick off again!


Tuneworks Full Speed Session

A chance for everyone to have a blast before the end of the session -

using the tunebooks means you'll know at least some of the tunes, and

get to hear and play them at full speed!


Tuneworks Turn Up and Play Sessions

A few of the Tuneworks staff will meet you at the Tuneworks

noticeboard in the Food Tent and help you get some tunes from our

tunebooks on the go - a good chance to unwind after or before seeing

some of the other great music available at the festival!


Tuneworks Beginners Coaching Fiddle

Kitty Greenwood is an experienced fiddle teacher who can help you get

to beginners session standard. Concentrating on a tune or two from the

beginners tunebook, she will help you to get those all-important

techniques right from the word go! You'll need to bring a fiddle along

to this workshop.


Tuneworks Beginners Coaching Whistle

Rob Pierce is a great flute and whistle player - just the person to

get you going on a tune or two from our beginners session book. You

will need a D whistle or a flute to participate in this workshop.


Tuneworks Uilleann Pipes Course

Jim Carroll is fast becoming one of the country's most respected

Uilleann Pipemakers and has a vast wealth of knowledge of playing

Irish music on a range of instruments. Turn up at the first session

and he will arrange how best to teach attendees over the weekend.


Storytelling

Tim O'the Oak will entertain everyone in the family with his

fascinating stories. A real festival find last year, Tim is one of the

country's best loved storytellers and brings an animated and energetic

style to each night's bedtime story.


Irish Session

After a number of very popular sessions last year, our friends from

Nottingham are back for a session each evening. A great chance for you

to get involved or sit back and listen!

Ratlingfolk Folk Against Fascism Day

Our friends at Ratlingfolk are organising a local folk day on Sunday 25th July where some of
Shropshire's best known folk artists gather in support of Folk Against
Fascism.

Organized by SFF committee members Izzy MacLachlan and Des Walker,
Rattlingfolk takes place at the Horseshoes pub, Bridges, Ratlinghope between
12.30 and 8pm.

Local favourites include Bill Caddick, Harriet Bartlett, Star of the Sea,
Flaxenby, Jonathan Day and Almost Bluegrass with other artists still to be
announced. There will be plenty of sessions including a slower paced tunes
making use of the SFF improvers Tunebook.

The event is outdoors under cover and costs £5 with under 12s being free.
Barbecued food is available all day.

For info on this and other Rattlingfolk events, check
www.MySpace.com/Rattlingfolk or join the Rattlingfolk Facebook group.

Car Sharing to SFF

Car Sharing

For those of you who can't make it by bus, train or car and who are coming from further afield http://www.gocarshare.com/ are offering a solution.

Car sharing will allow you to find fun people to share the journey with whilst sharing the cost of travel and hopefully making a difference to the environment.

Simply go onto www.gocarshare.com and log on via facebook; if you are planning on driving, just post a car share request to Shrewsbury home of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

Hope this helps a few of you out!

Calan - pics and radio piece

(click for larger pic)

Last weeks' schools project with Calan was a real joy - the group were fantastic in school and the whole school loved having them there.

The band will be at the festival this year, they'll perform with the kids again, but also have their own slot on stage - make sure you catch them if you get chance!

Whilst in school, Genevieve Tudor from BBC Radio Shropshire came and recorded a short piece about the schools project, you can listen to it here (MP3, 3.5mb)

(click for larger pic)

Beer & Cider list for the festival

We have the cider & beer list for the festival, here you go.....

Ciders
Riches Cider Co.
Sweet ,Medium and Dry
Brook Farm Cider
Medium Dry and extra dry cider, Medium Perry

Dunkertons Organic Cider
medium sweet and dry ciders
organic perry and Browns single variety cider

Gwatkins Cider Co
Foxwhelp, Norman , Stoke Red and Yarlington Mill ciders plus Blakeney Red Perry
Hecks cider and perry
Hecks perry and Kingston black cider

Westcroft Cider Co
Janets Jungle Juice and Morgans sweet

Burrow Hill Cider Co
Medium and dry cider plus pear cider
Someset cider brandy

Broad Oak
Kingston black and medium sweet ciders plus Moonshine and perry

Newton Court Cider
Newtons Dry and Perry

Gwynt y DDraig The Welsh Cider Company
Black Dragon, Dog dancer, Fiery Fox, Two Trees Perry, Farmhouse Sweet, Happy Daze, Malvern Hills Perry, Farmhouse cyder and Barnstormer

Cider House special cider
Magners
Stowford press

We shall also be selling farm pressed apple juice from Ju's farm in hereford.

The Beers
Salopian Brewery
Hop twister
Lemon dream
Shropshire Gold
Oracle
Darwins Origin

The Ludlow Brewing Co
Ludlow Gold
The Boiling Well
Ludlow Best

Timothy Taylors
Timothy Taylors Landlord
Best Bitter

Enville Ales
Enville Ale
Enville White
Gothic Ale
Ginger Beer
Old Porter
Nailmaker Mild

Hook Norton
Old Hooky
Hooky Bitter
Hooky Dark
Hooky Gold

Ma Pardoes
Entire
Dark Swan
Broughs Pale Ale

Three Tuns
XXX
1642 Bitter
Solstice
Old Scrooge
Clerics Cure

Hobsons
Best Bitter
Town Crier
Hobsons Mild
Twisted Spire

Woods Brewery
Shropshire Lad and Lass
Wonderful
Quaff
Pot 'o' Gold

Bathams Bitter (if i can get hold of some) !

Plus some Gluten free bottled ales from greens
these are:
Pathfinder
Mission
Quest
Pioneer

Also on tap:
Grolsch
Carling
Worthingtons
Guinness
Butty Bach
Dorothy Goodbodys
Hereford Pale Ale

Hope this is enough for you all!

Calan and the Schools' Project

The final year of our current schools' project took place last week.

Over the last three years we've taken the folk music and dance traditions of Great Britain into three local schools. Year one saw the Demon Barbers, year two we had Breabach, and this year we had young Welsh band Calan working in Shrewsbury.

Over the last three years over 1100 children have worked with the bands, with 90 of them appearing in concerts at the Theatre Severn and the festival.


The children who worked with Calan this week will all be at the festival in August (along with their families) to experience the whole event, and will perform with the band on Sunday afternoon in Marquee 2.


It's been a fantastic project and we intend to carry on with our work in school - we'll take a one year break next year and will then be back with a new project to take musicians and young groups into the schools of Shrewsbury and Shropshire in 2012

SFF @ The Hive. Concert Series

In the past year we've hosted 3 concerts at the Hive - they've all been successful events at a fantastic, intimate venue in the centre of Shrewsbury.

Over the past few months we've been working on extended these occasional concerts into a formal concert series. We have 10 events between September 2010 - June 2011 and the first 5 go on sale today.

The venue is The Hive in Shrewsbury, a seated, air conditioned small arts centre that is perfect for folk music - it only seats 100 people and tickets will sell quickly.

Sunday 19th September
Jackie Oates Band

Sunday 24th October
Crooked Still

Sunday 21 November
Kris Drever Trio (with John McCusker & Donald Shaw)

Sunday 12th December
Bella Hardy (Bright Morning Star Christmas Show)

Sunday 9th January
Jez Lowe

Venue details are:
The Hive, 5 Belmont, shrewsbury, SY1 1TE
box office 01743 234970

any questions please email me neil@shrewsburyfolk........

Schools' Project

The third year of our schools' project started today.

We have Welsh band Calan working in St George's Junior School all week where they will be teaching children the Welsh traditions of traditional song and dance.

They will work with every class, but in particular will be working with 30 children who will perform with them on Friday night at a concert at the Theatre Severn.

The band and 30 children will perform the same concert at the festival this year - it's always one of the highlights of the festival, so make sure you see the concert this year!

Shirt #3 - ladies Kiwi vest

Colour reproduction is in the pictures is OK- the real thing is just a little richer in colour.

Click image for larger picture

Shirt #2 - Mens Wave Design (Khaki)

The colour reproduction isn't so great on these pictures, in reality there's a touch more green in them than is shown here

Click images for a larger picture

Shirt #1 -Ladies Chocolate Barcode Design

Click the images for a full size version - colour reproduction is OK in the pics, the picture of the front of the shirt is close to the actual colour

T-Shirts

The festival t-shirts have arrived..it's always a bit of a daunting moment when you open the first box, just in case you made a massive error with pantone codes!

This year we have

ladies fitted shirts (2 different styles)
ladies fitted vests (1 style)
kids t-shirts (1 style)
mens shirts (2 different styles)

The adult t-shirts all have front and back prints, and the Folk Against Fascism logo on the left sleeve.
Kids shirts and the vest have a front print only.

Show of Hands - Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed. SFF 2009

Show of Hands - Arrogance Ignorance & Greed.
Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2009

Show of Hands played the main stage of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival on Saturday 30th August 2008. This footage comes from the feed that was shown on the screens in the main tent and around the site

Morris: A Life With Bells On

At the festival this year we'll be screening the fantastic folk film, Morris: "A Life With Bells On"

There will be multiple showings of the film over the weekend, and best of all they will be FREE for all festival goers - we'll announce more details a little closer to the festival.

In the meantime, here's a link to the trailer.....
Morris: A Life with Bells on Trailer

Hatch Show Print 2010

(click image for a larger view)

Our posters from Hatch Show Print in Nashville arrived today, and they're the best we've ever had.

These letterpress posters are all handmade, and each one is unique - they are genuine works of art and look great when framed.

They will be for sale at the festival merch tent in August.

A Blog About Bogs

Here’s today’s glimpse into the glamorous life of the SFF organising committee through the year.

The toilets for the festival are now arranged and booked – and they’re quite an improvement on previous years. Rather than the standalone single toilets we’ve had in the past, the toilets on site this year are quite a step up (literally).

Each unit will have real toilets, sinks with running warm water, soap and towel dispensers, vanity mirrors, and best of all lighting!

For those of you interested in these (and let’s be honest, that’s everyone) you can find them at Andy's Loos and we’re having the Duchess unit from the Events Range.

Dancing at Shrewsbury

As well as an unrivalled list of concert artists and workshops, we have a equally exciting dance programme that covers every aspect of traditional dance.
Whether you are doing it or watching it, you will love it!

Fun, frolics, laughter and spectacle from our dance teams; driving rhythms and rock solid dance beats from our bands.

Let the music lift your spirits and feel that need to move to the music.


The Dance Line-Up

Bands
Toothless Mary caller Fee Lock
a lively and energetic ceilidh sound, a blend of funk, 80's disco and folk

Dartmoor Pixie Band caller Sarah Bazeley
a unique sound that’ll make you want to get up and jig!

Tickled Pink caller Martin Harvey
one of the most sought after bands on the UK festival circuit, they rock!

One Short Band caller Shelia Mainwaring
another brilliant band from Shropshire, some of the best folk dance musicians in the UK.

Whiskey River Boys
Louisiana Swamp Music, Country Blues, Old Timey, Americana, old style R'n'R, Blues, good country music.....

Elysium
Disco meets ceilidh - a new concept mixing everything from House and Breaks to Drum'n'Bass and Techno, with a bit of folk thrown in for good measure.

Dance Teams
Barefoot Bellydance (Tribal style bellydance)
Crook Morris (Cotswold Morris)
The Dartmoor Broom Dancers and Dartmoor Step dance (Dartmoor tradition)
The Ironmen and Severn Gilders (Border Morris)
Kick Start (Appalachian)
The Knots in May (North West Morris and more)
North British Sword Dancers (Longsword, rapper and much more)
One Step Beyond (Appalachian)
Rapper Rascals (Rapper)
Rivington Morris (North West Morris)
Shropshire Bedlams and Martha Rhoden’s Tuppenny Dish (Border Morris & More)
Wharfdale Wayzgoose (Border Morris)
Sambassadors of Groove (Samba & Latin percussion)

Filming and webcasts at SFF 2010

As we have done in the past couple of years we will be filming the mainstage performances - this is done primarily to feed the big screens that sit either side of the stage in the main marquee.

There are a couple of upgrades to the set-up this year - for the first time we will be filming both in widescreen and in high definition!.

We'll also be further developing the webcasts from last year, and for the second year running we'll be webcasting mainstage performances live!

Sadly the technical limitations of webcasting means that we can't stream in HD, sorry.

More details of this and timings muhc closer to the event.

Video Catchup - Richard Thompson, Bellowhead, Krista Detor

We've added more videos to our Youtube channel - you can see all the videos we've uploaded here and relive some memories of the festival (or just see what you missed!)

Richard Thompson - Dad's Gonna Kill Me



Bellowhead - London Town



Krista Detor - All to Do With the Moon

Early bird offer coming to an end!

There are just 3 days left of the early bird offer - this is the last chance to buy weekend tickets at the reduced rate, saving £15 on a adult weekend ticket.

Full details are on our website or just click the flyer on the post below for all the ticket breakdowns.

The 2010 Flyer

For those of you who don't receive these through the post, here's a chance to download a PDF of the full 2010 flyer.



Click here to download the flyer.

Afro Celt Sound System

It's been a badly kept secret, but we've had to wait until the band were ready to announce the whole tour.

A pioneering and thrilling live band, Afro Celt Sound System return to live
action this summer for the first time in five years.
Twice Grammy-nominated
and multi-million album selling, the band play summer festivals throughout
Europe. Shrewsbury Folk Festival is very proud to be one of a select few
festivals in the UK presenting the Afro Celt Sound System in 2010.
A career-spanning survey double CD release of the bands best work
on Realworld will be announced soon.

"It's like a hurricane let loose... the spontaneity, the mix of ancient and
modern, the black and white, the fluidity and breathless glee" Q Magazine

Jon Boden solo slot confirmed for Monday

Just a quick update to let you know that Jon Boden 'solo' has been confirmed for the festival on Monday afternoon.

Not sure of the exact timings yet, but it will be early afternoon as Bellowhead are finishing the festival on Monday.

The line-up is now complete, we'll list all the artists for you early next week.

Hatch Show Print

As many of you may know, we use Hatch Show Print to print fantastic posters that we make available at the festival - there's nowhere else in the world that makes posters like this and we have them shipped over from Nashville.

This year Alan & Sandra visited the print shop on their way home from Folk Alliance - and our posters are on display in the 'unique' print room.

Here are few images from the shop - including one of Alan helping you find the poster!

The image from the window shows our 2008 poster, it's obviously been in the window since then, and has been mangled by the Hatch Show Print Cat!

We'll be back to Hatch again this year for another poster - and will post details of it as and when we have them here.

Folk Alliance

Since last Wednesday Alan, Sandra & Neil have been at Folk Alliance in Memphis. We first went in 2008, but this time were ready and knew what to expect......

Wall to wall music from both big names and upcoming artists all in one huge hotel (the Marriott in Memphis); there were panels, sessions and chances to meet artists, agents, folk arts professionals and fellow festival organisers from all over the world.

It was good to meet some old friends of the festival including Leonard from the Duhks, as well as seeing people for the first time - I confess that I had to travel to the US for my first chance to see Martyn Joseph (he played about a half a dozen showcases and was excellent)

We saw lots more showcases including Michelle Shocked, Po Girl and John Gorka, but the overall highlight was the Sweetback Sisters who put in an amazing concert. We talked to countless artists, and spent time in a city that is very quiet during the day but comes alive at night.

We spent some time on Beale St and met a genuine blues legend in Clyde Hopkins, had a memorable beer in a Beale St bar quite unlike anything you've ever seen, took the l-o-n-g walk to Sun Studios, where the tour was much better than you could expect (they take tours during the day, and then bands record there in the evening), took in a basketball game at the FedEx Arena on Saturday night, and even had time to see the Peabody Ducks

Great restaurants, including a fantastic meal at Rendevous Ribs where we were memorably served by Robert Snr who's been there 46 years!

I came home today (Monday), but Alan & Sandra are touring for an extra week including a trip to Graceland and then to spend some time in Nashville.

Hopefully, by the time they get back we'll be able to announce the headline act!

Who is on When

We've now booked ALL the acts for 2010, and here's the full* line-up along with days performing. This is the first time the list along with artists for all the stages and venues have been released, so have a look through as there are people we've not announced before here......

* all acts are booked, but we can't release the headliner just yet, as it's part of a world tour and everything has to be announced together...we'll be able to do this in March. What we can let you know is that they'll be performing on Sunday night, just after Billy Bragg.

Here we go, in alphabetical order

FRIDAY 27th
Adrian Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds
Adrienne Young
Andy Wall
Fairfield
Jackie Oates
Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts
Kimber’s Men
Koshka
Lucy Kaplansky
Michael McGoldrick Big Band
Mick Ryan & Paul Downes
OK Brandy
Penny Priest
Richard Shindell
The Kittiwakes
The Young’uns
Toothless Mary with Fee Lock

SATURDAY 28th
Adrienne Young
Andy Wall
Cara Dillon
Chuck Brodsky
Dartmoor Pixie Band with Sarah Bazeley
Dave Young & Dave Bordewey
Dervish & Guests
DJ ceilidh with Pete Rees & Phil Bassingdale
Drever, McCusker, Woomble with Heidi Talbot and Boo Hewerdine
Fairfield
Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine
Katriona Gilmore & Jamie Roberts
Kimber’s Men
Koshka
Lucy Kaplansky
Mick Ryan & Paul Downes
OK Brandy
Penny Priest
Richard Shindell
Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky
The Kittiwakes
The Navvy’s Wife
The Old Dance School
The Tom McConville Band
The Young’uns
The Wilsons
Whiskey River Boys
Winter Wilson

SUNDAY 29th
Billy Bragg
Calan
Chuck Brodsky
Dartmoor Pixie Band with Sarah Bazeley
Genticoram
Tim Judson & Julia Disney
Kerr, Fagan & Harbron
Kimber’s Men
Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
Lucy Ward
Sam Carter
The Fay Hield Trio
The Old Dance School
The Wilsons
The Young’uns
Tickled Pink with Martyn Harvey
Tom Kitchin & Gren Bartley

MONDAY 30th
Bellowhead
Belshazzar’s Feast
Calan
Chuck Brodsky
Hans Theessink
John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
Kerfuffle
Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling
Majorstuen
Mawkin:Causley
May Contain Nuts
The Old Dance School
The Wilsons
Tom Kitchin & Gren Bartley

Festival Showreel Part 2

The second part of our 2009 festival showreel includes highlights from Show of Hands, Eric Bibb, Spooky Men's Chorale and The Proclaimers



We have all the footage from the main stage performances, if you'd like to see a particular song/clip then let us know and we'll upload it to youtube in the coming weeks.....

The Line-Up and The Art of Virtue

For the last few weeks, we've been waiting on the confirmation of one more act that will complete our main stage line-up....

It's a space on Sunday night, it's a big band and it's quite complicated.

We're confident it will work out, but patience is a virtue and this time we're going to give it time to fall into place!

In the meantime, here's a more complete look at parts of the line-up (an even more complete list is on our website)

Bellowhead
Cara Dillon
Dervish & special guests
Billy Bragg
Michael McGoldrick Big Band
Ade Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds
Richard Shindell
Lucy Kaplansky
Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine (with Drever McCusker & Woomble)
Genticorum
Jackie Oates Band
Hans Theesink
John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
Chuck Brodsky
Mawkin:Causley
Adrienne Young
Fay Hield Trio
Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling
Belshazzar's Feast
Kerfuffle
Kerr Fagan Harbron
Lucy Ward
Tom McConville

..and a few more

We're almost ready to announce our full line-up(honestly!), but while you're all waiting......

Every year we like to bring some North American artists to the festival who you may have heard of, but almost certainly haven't seen. In 2007 we brought Richard Shindell over for his first visit to the UK in ten years, and since then we've had Crooked Still, Mark Erelli, Ollabelle, Eilen Jewell, Krista Detor and more.

This year is no exception and as well as having both Richard Shindell and Lucy Kaplansky with us in August, we have a couple artists to add to the line-up -Chuck Brodsky and Adrienne Young (and her band)

There will be full bios in on our website (and in the programme), but here's a quick clip of Chuck

Chuck Brodsky

Happy New Year, plus a few more names

Well it's a little late, but we have an excuse! I had intended to post this on Monday 4th, but a gas explosion in Shrewsbury (BBC News), took out my phone lines and broadband until today.

We're just waiting on our headliners to confirm and then we'll make a 'formal' line-up announcement, but in the meantime here are a few more names from the festival for 2010

Bellowhead

Jackie Oates (and band)

Nancy & James