Shrewsbury Folk Festival

Cecil Sharp Project Review in Living Tradition

2011-12-18T07:28:00.002Z

Review from Dec/Jan Living Tradition
(click for pdf version)

Line-up and tickets on sale

2011-12-01T07:09:00.004Z

We have, as you will see, put together most of the 2012 line up, but there are still several acts in negotiation.....expect some surprises.

The great man (Richard Thompson) is back with many of your requested favourites. Show of Hands are planning something very special, (more of this, in months to come) and Blowzabella have a marathon ceilidh lined up.

The Sweetback Sisters return from New York to give us their slant on Country Music. There are surprises in the form of, Madison Violet and Old Man Luedecke (pronounced “Loo-da-ka)” from Canada, Jonathan Byrd from the US and Anxo Lorenzo from Spain. And brace yourselves for our new Global Dance spectacular on main stage one.

As usual there will be something for everyone, artists you recognise and love, and new bands and singers for you to discover. Once again we will be celebrating the tradition, encouraging the contemporary and partying with all of our high energy bands.

Have a wonderful Christmas; we look forward to seeing you in August. Alan

Ticket details are here

Line-up (as of 1 Dec 2011)

RICHARD THOMPSON

KATE RUSBY

SHOW OF HANDS (with a unique show this year)

DERVISH

BLOWZABELLA

ANXO LORENZO

JON BODEN & REMNANT KINGS

PLAINSONG

SESSION A9

SWEETBACK SISTERS

ABIGAIL WASHBURN

LAU

FAUSTUS

KARINE POLWART

VIN GARBUTT

JIM MORAY BAND

JACKIE OATES

FAY HIELD BAND

GLOBAL DANCE PROJECT

BAD ANNA

MADISON VIOLET

VAMM

RUA MACMILLAN

JONATHAN BYRD

BASKERY

OLD MAN LUEDECKE

SCOVILLE UNITS

MIRANDA SYKES & REX PRESTON

Dance Bands

FLORIDA

ALL BLACKED UP

GLOW WORMS

BLACKBEARD’S TEA PARTY

THIS WAY UP

SFF concerts for 2012

2011-11-23T17:42:00.001Z

A Songlines album of the Year!

2011-11-09T17:52:00.003Z

We're proud to have the Cecil Sharp Project CD be chosen as one of top ten albums of the year by Songlines magazine.

Martyn Joseph & Show of Hands - Cardiff Bay

2011-10-30T17:57:00.000Z

Tickets on sale

2011-10-08T07:30:00.003Z

Tickets for SFF 2012 will go on sale on December 1 - in light of this year's record early sell out, advice is to get yours early! On December 1 we'll also reveal some of the headliners so you can get a taste of what you can look forward to....

Breabach - Scotland's Winter / Farley Bridge

2011-10-07T09:53:00.001Z

Steve Knightley - free live stream of our Hive show

2011-09-30T06:25:00.002Z

If you weren't one of the lucky 100 people to get a ticket to the Steve Knightley gig at The Hive in Shrewsbury this weekend don't despair - we've decided that you can watch it from the comfort of your own computer.

For the first time - and a follow on from our live festival webcasts - we will be broadcasting Steve's concert live, thanks to the technical wizards at Microvideo. The gig can be followed at http://live.stream264.com/ from 7.45pm on Saturday and will be available until Thursday, October 6.

Steve's concert is the latest in the monthly series of folk concerts we organise at The Hive, an intimate venue in heart of Shrewsbury.

Stream is http://live.stream264.com/ from 7:45pm on Saturday 1st October

Review of Refolkus

2011-09-21T10:21:00.002Z

We've received this amazing review of Refolkus from a festival attendee and wanted to share it with you all...

Shrewsbury Review from a Teen’s Point of View

The train edging closer to the rural fields of Shropshire, I sat back and casually opened the neatly folded piece of paper on the table in front of me. This humble piece of paper contained the Shrewsbury Folk Festival’s youth programme timetable, so with great anticipation, I opened it. Rather guiltily, I must admit, I expected the stereotypical, quintessentially ‘folky’ pot-pourri of morris dancing, clog dancing, fiddle workshops, and banjos. So I was, indeed, both surprised and excited to unearth that instead I faced a diverse range of street theatre, rapper dance, samba band, vocal workshops, withy sculpting, and learning to how to do henna tattoos! This was indeed true to fact as I discovered 2 hours later to see busy withy-sculptors buzzing around like bees in a hive, and a crowd gathering for street theatre. Although we all love and know these folk-promoting workshops, I’m sure these keen young folkies would have seen all that before. It was refreshing; I’d only very vaguely heard of withy sculpting! Sadly I‘d arrived too late for withy, but not to be disheartened, I sat nervously inside the marquee, awaiting the start of the street theatre workshop. I felt lightly out-of-place for reasons quite hard to place, most seemed younger than me, a few a bit older.

Overall the workshop was great fun, starting with the norm of name games and ‘walking round the space’ games. However, amongst this there was an imaginative twist….. We analysed chance tableaus, freeze frames from our journey around the room, with adept detail. Our individual ideas spanning from wedding to bullying, we then used newspaper to create objects and invent stories, our stimulus the River Severn. Two days later, I caught up with Julie Langford, one of the group leaders, and she explained where their ideas came from: ‘We like to make things about places’ she told me, ‘…we do a lot of things inspired by the way that place makes us feel, when we were driving into Shrewsbury and we passed the river we thought that would be a really evocative thing for young people to think about, for the basis of a story.’ Personally I think the stimulus was definitely an appropriate and inspiring idea, and I think all of us were lost in the majesty of our unique river.

Next up was rapper dance, which we started by standing in a large circle and just learning the simple steps. We then split up into groups of sword-dancing experience and consequentially into smaller groups of five. Across the next 2 days we proceeded to learn several simple steps under the guidance of our instructor Nicol, from occasional side Smut Rapper, including ‘Coach and Horses’, ‘High Level’, ‘Breastplate’, ‘Lock’ and ‘Spin.’ This was a great experience, as we all had to work co-operatively as a team, and trust one another to remember those killer words: ‘Swords up whilst moving!’ The whole episode felt rather reminiscent of my childhood games of Doctor Doctor to be honest, except we actually managed to untangle ourselves with a few days practise! I relished the fact that there was an opportunity to participate in such an inimitable activity that perhaps I couldn’t do in London; whilst I thoroughly enjoyed street theatre, I have done a lot of drama in my time, but only rapper once before in London. It’s fantastic that there’s such a great amount of youth interested in traditional dance, and we were lucky to watch the young dancers from Smut Rapper perform. In fact after our performance on the Monday I talked to one of the professional dancers, Alice Codey, who explained a bit about Smut Rapper, she said, ‘Smut Rapper isn’t actually based anywhere, we’re an occasional side….all our members are in dance teams across the country….we’ve been doing the for the last four years now.’ I think it’s fantastic that these folk-dance enthusiasts from all over Britain come together every so often, and annually come to Shrewsbury to teach keen 12-25 year olds who may have no experience or may even be in a side themselves. This was definitely an instrumental part in the youth folk programme at Shrewsbury.

I couldn’t take part in everything on offer, as I mustn’t forget the highly anticipated music workshops, singing, samba and big band. I sat in on a few samba band sessions, and what first struck me was the effort and concentration that was blatant to see when I saw approximately 40 teenagers in a state of complete focus. A rare sight in a school assembly. Even when the leader dropped her drumsticks, as they skidded across the room, the djembes, congas, bongos, kettle drums, cowbells and sticks carried on a ’beating! The call and response was clearly well-rehearsed as they gave a polished performance even in rehearsals. I asked one participant, Julia, about the samba band: ‘We started off with a few exercises, then learnt to play the drums’ she told me, and explained what she liked about it ‘I liked all the different sounds, I really enjoyed it.’ It’s great to have such a brilliant reception from the percussionists, it is after all organised for their benefit to learn in a fun and relaxed environment.

I didn’t get a chance to sit in on the singers or the big band, but reflecting on the singers’ performance, it was note-perfect, tuneful and interesting to hear, in particular their last song. As they stamped their feet there seemed a powerful message in the song, mantra like perhaps: ‘all the earth is sa-a-cred, in every step you take, all the air is sa-a-cred, in every breath you take.’ I was happy to see the youth programme leader Cait Leach and Open Mike winner Rosie Hood sing along with the kids. It was clear to see the impact on the audience with their audible whispers saying ‘very, very good.’ Big band had miraculously crammed onto the stage, guitars, violins, saxophones, clarinets and more amidst the people. They too gave a high-standard performance, remarkable considering the short amount of time they had to piece together a performance. Not forgetting the act that kick started the show, the samba band. I asked young drummer Louis Marsh to sum it up in 3 words and instantly his quick response was ‘loud’! Certainly true, but the audience seemed to revel in the cacophony, it was rousing and fun. The percussionists were obviously relishing their new-found skills, or perhaps reminding themselves of the fun of drumming.

After the performance, I asked 2 members of the audience; who had no children or friends performing in the show, what their comments were on all three performances: “I thought they were wonderful, lovely to see so much enthusiasm from young people doing a whole range of things……a marvellous combination of talent.” It’s fantastic that these young people managed to nearly fill a 2,000 seat tent, let alone get such a positive response, they showed amazing courage performing in front of such a huge audience, and I’m sure this is aided by the tutors’ encouragement.

Of course it’s one thing for the audience to enjoy it, but another to have the pupils honestly full of praise for the course. Eleven year-old Hope Rodenhurst took part in six projects: henna tattooing, rapper dance, singing, street theatre, withy-sculpting and ham-boning. Only the latter was not as good as she hoped, but only because the vast majority of the participants were a lot younger than her, “they were loads of small children, it didn’t really work”, (SFF note, the hamboning was part of the children's festival rather than Refolkus which explains why it had younger children, but we'll look at a session for teens next year!) she agreed that perhaps they could have split in half, a younger and older group. Nevertheless, she said her favourites were the henna workshop and singing. “In singing you got to perform it and in henna it was just really fun […] you got free henna tubes….I had it done as well as learning a bit how to do it.” Her suggestions for next year’s courses were tap, ballet and individual dance. It’s clear that the performance was an appealing factor, as Hope mentioned. Her friend Celia Holland also had a suggestion for next year: “I think in some of the things they could have the performances on one day, they could spread it out a bit so the things that don’t need as much practise are on the first day.” But another participant Catherine described her first time sword-dancing as “nerve-wracking but exciting” as she has seen rapper-dance before but never tried it. It’s brilliant that children like Catherine get to experiment with folk-dance and learn about it from professionals, for free!

Overall, the youth programme at Shrewsbury folk festival is diverse and educational, most importantly fun! It’s successfully showcasing the fun in folk and making folk accessible to the next generation. Hopefully all folk festivals can have such inspiring youth programmes, and organisations like English Folk Dance and Song Society and Shooting Roots are making sure that teenagers learn about the cultural music and dance history of England. Who knows, some of these children may become the next Jackie Oates?

By Cherry Elliott-Millar

Age 13

A big thank you on behalf of Hope House

2011-08-31T20:06:00.002Z

Hope House has counted the money they collected on Sunday and it was a record £1,578. Its stall made £460 and with the donation of £1 for every adult weekend ticket sold from us, they're on course to beat last year's total of £5,396. Over the past four years we will have raised more than £20,000 for music therapy that helps the children communicate and express themselves. The hospice receives NO other funding for music therapy so every penny you help to raise is important. So thanks for your generosity - it will truly make a difference.

End of Festival Survey

2011-08-30T07:27:00.003Z

Well that's it for 2011! Thanks for making it such a great festival!

We hope you all made it back home safely and in good time.

Our end of festival survey is now online here

SHREWSBURY FOLK FESTIVAL 2011 SURVEY

Please take the time to complete this, we read and consider everything you write and it genuinely shapes how the festival is put together - PLUS we will randomly select one person to win a free ticket for the 2012 festival

Live webcam feed

2011-08-23T17:15:00.001Z

If the image says 'offline', please press F5 or Refresh to reset the webcam feed.

Site webcams

2011-08-20T16:21:00.002Z

This year we have installed 4 cameras on the site and we have live feeds from these online right now

You can watch the site build this week, and we'll keep the feeds live so you can see what's happening on the site during the festival.

Online here

Online Main Stage Broadcasts

2011-08-17T06:53:00.002Z

If you are unable to make to the festival this year, then don't forget that we broadcast all our mainstage one concerts, live and free on the festival website

The mainstage one performance schedule is

FRIDAY 26th
19:35 Kepa Junkera Band
20:50 Cara Dillon
22:10 Bellowhead

SATURDAY 27th
12:45 The Wilsons
13:55 Jim Moray
14:45 John Tams & Barry Coope
16:00 17 Hippies

19:30 Martyn Joseph
20:35 Show of Hands
22:00 17 Hippies

SUNDAY 28th
12:30 Clog Fest
13:40 Chris Wood and Andy Cutting
14:50 Spiers and Boden
16:00 Gerry O'Connor

19:30 Chris Wood
20:45 The Sweetback Sisters
22:05 The Imagined Village

MONDAY 29th
13:00 Calan
14:15 Breabach
13:25 Johnny Dickinson
16:30 Oysterband and special guests

Live broadcasts will be on the festival website here

Festival Beers for 2011

2011-08-11T06:49:00.004Z

Our list of beers for 2011 is now complete - here you go, there are 47 of them in total.......good luck!

Hobsons
Twisted Spire
Hobsons Mild
Hobsons Best Bitter
Town Crier

Hook Norton
Hooky Bitter
Hooky Dark
Hooky Gold
Old Hooky
Haymaker

Pardoes
Entire
Original
Dark Swan
Bumblehole

Three Tunns
1642
xxx
Solstice
Clerics Cure
Old Scrooge

Salopian
Shropshire Gold
Darwins Origin
Hop Twister
Oracle
Lemondream

Enville
Enville Ale
Enville Ginger
Old Porter
Enville White
Nail Maker Mild
Pheonix

Ludlow
Ludlow Best Bitter
Ludlow Gold
Boiling Well

Wye Valley
Wye Valley Best Bitter
Butty Bach
H.P.A
Summer Sting
Dorothy Goodbodies

Woods

Shropshire Lass
Shropshire Lad
Quaff
Athletes Ale

Kirkby Lonsdale
Monumental
Jubilee
Ruskins
Radical

Timothy Taylors
Landlord
Taylors Best Bitter

Programmes

2011-08-10T07:04:00.003Z

The festival programmes have arrived, so if you ordered a programme when you purchased your festival tickets, then this should be delivered to you by the weekend.

One small change this year, every programme has a small pocket sized insert that has an at-a-glance 4 day schedule for the two main marquees, Sabrina and the dance marquee - hopefully this will make planning a little easier and mean you don't have to keep a programme with you at all times!

Cecil Sharp Project - interviews from the songhouse

2011-08-06T17:17:00.001Z

Great video piece from inside the Cecil Sharp Project songhouse from Bright Young Folk - interviews with all the artists, a glimpse at how the week was structured and how some of the songs came together.

2011 Merchandise

2011-07-30T06:49:00.003Z

All the merch for the 2011 festival has now arrived...

We were waiting on the new bags to arrive from India and had an estimated delivery date of August 22nd (which was cutting things a little fine), but they all arrived yesterday and look great!

This year we have

T-shirts (mens, ladies, kids)
Lanyards
Bags
Hats

We'll post pictures of everything next week.

Exciting news....

2011-07-25T16:04:00.001Z

At the festival we're going to be announcing another patron to serve alongside our founder patron and all round good bloke John Jones from Oysterband. However, we're going to keep you guessing about who it is until August bank holiday - but let's just say we are really pleased this person has agreed to join the Shrewsbury Folk Festival family!

Don't forget your kids' wellies....

2011-07-22T08:07:00.003Z

....not because it might rain (we have put in an order for a full weekend of sun) but because this year, there'll be some workshops in South African gumboot dancing as part of the children's programme. Led by Jenny Read and Appakella, it should be the most fun they can have with their wellies on! They'll also be the chance for them to learn hamboning and Appalachian step dancing. For more about the children's festival and this year's theme of myth and magic have a look at the festival website www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/children/index.shtml

Cecil Sharp Project on tour, January 2012

2011-07-20T09:48:00.003Z

The Cecil Sharp Project will be heading out for a short UK tour in January, and will visit

Bristol
Buxton
Derby
Glasgow
Burnley
London

Full details are below on the tour flyer, hope to see you at one of the shows..

Cecil Sharp Project CD & DVD

2011-06-28T18:43:00.004Z

The Cecil Sharp Project CD and DVD twin packs have been away at manufacture for the last few weeks and we expect to have finished copies delivered here by early July.

We've just started taking pre-orders for shipment in July on the project website

The official release date for regular stores and digital downloads will be Sept 5th.

There is more information and song samples available on the project website, but you can download a FREE song right here!

Download Child's Song / Barbara Allen and read the liner notes below

Sharp was struck by the cross-generational interest in singing in the Appalachians. His diaries frequently mention songs given to him by children and teenagers and their desire to perform for him and Maud on their visits. Barbara Allen was one such, this version collected from Ellie Johnson of Hot Springs, North Carolina. Kathryn Roberts

The shadows hung round the fireplace on the night he came to see us.
I stood in the door and I heard some more of the songs Mama won't teach us.
But I know more than she'll ever guess; I've grown with my ears open.
So I'll wait in the dark and I'll take his hand and sing him Barbara Allen.

I've heard these songs since I was a child and I know how to sing them,
You throw your head back and take a breath and let the song come rising.
These tales of old, they touch my soul, though I don't understand them
So I'll wait in the dark and I'll take his hand and sing him Barbara Allen.

Sweet William's down in his dwell today, he's down in his dwell a-drinking,
He passed the wine to the ladies all, he slighted Barbara Allen.
It wasn't very long before William's taken sick, death was all he dreaded.
He sent his love for Barbara to come, she come, she's come a-running.

And all she said when she got there, young man I think you're dying,
Oh I am sick and I'm very sick and never be no better.
It wasn't very long before Barbara started home; she heard the corpse bells ringing.
She looked East and she looked West and saw the pale corpse coming.

Sweet William died on Saturday night, and Barbara on a Sunday
The old woman died for the love of both, she died on Easter Monday.
On William’s grave a turtle dove, on Barbara's grave a sparrow.
The turtle dove is a sign of love, the sparrow was for sorrow

Chuck Brodsky - Sunday 26th June

2011-06-21T17:25:00.002Z

We have our final concert of the 10/11 concert series this Sunday, where we welcom Chuck Brodsky back to Shrewsbury after his fantastic festival appearance last year.

Full details on all our Hive Shows are here Shrewsbury Folk Events

We've uploaded some exclusive video from Chuck's festival appearance to our Facebook site, but here's a taste of what we can expect on Sunday - it will be an amzing gig and the whole festival team will be there for this one...we can't wait!

2011 t-shirt design winner

2011-06-06T14:35:00.003Z

We received a good number of really high quality entries for our 2011 t-shirt competition, thanks to all those who took the time to enter, we really appreciate the efforts you went to. It's certainly something we'll be running in future years....

The winner was Peter Farrell from Cheshire, who will see his design printed on all our shirts this year (and a few bits of other merchandise that we'll announce closer to the festival); he won a family ticket with camping for his efforts. We should have the shirts here later this month so will post pictures of them when they arrive.

Tuneworks day in Shrewsbury

2011-06-01T15:02:00.001Z

Summer's here and it's time to get your tunes polished up for festival season!

Tuneworks are running a beginners and Improvers day at The Hive in Shrewsbury on Sunday 3rd July from 11am to 5pm. Concentrating on the mainly English and Irish tunes in our tunebook (free to download at www.tuneworks.co.uk) we will be starting slowly and over the day building up speed and quality of playing.

At 3pm, there will be a free ceilidh and we will put the tunes to good use by playing for the dancers! Find us on Facebook or email izzy@tuneworks.co.uk for more information.

The cost of the day is £5 for players and FREE for dancers (3-5pm only) and tickets are available from the The Hive, 5 Belmont, Shrewsbury SY1 1TE. Tel 01743 234970.

Yoga at SFF 2011

2011-05-29T09:35:00.000Z

We're pleased to announce that this year, we're introducing a session to help you kickstart your festival day - yoga!

British Wheel of Yoga teacher Faith Page will host an all-abilities session from 8.30am to 9.30am upstairs in the Pavilion on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

She's promising an invigorating and relaxing class that's suitable for everyone including beginners. Bring a mat if you've got one but don't worry if you haven't.

New Facebook Page

2011-05-20T17:59:00.003Z

The festival's Facebook page was set up a couple of years ago, but the 'group' format is no longer being supported by Facebook and soon the page will be archived.

We've now started a new page on Facebook, and have started uploading some festival pics and videos - in the coming days we'll be uploading more, and this is the place (along with the blog and twitter) to pick up up-to-date festival info.

To join the new group, please click LIKE below!

We can upload lots of official festival pics and videos, but part of the fun of the old page was that we had lots of your pics up there - please feel free to upload your pics again!

SOLD OUT!

2011-05-04T21:21:00.002Z

We're pleased to announce that we've now sold out of all our tickets for this years' festival.

Demand has been really high and we really hope you managed to buy the tickets you wanted. See you in August!

Songlines Top 10 UK Summer Festivals

2011-05-04T10:10:00.004Z

We're proud to be listed in the Songlines 'Guide to Festivals 2011'
clicking the image below will open the page featuring Shrewsbury as a PDF, but for the full feature (and a great monthly read) pick up issue 76 of Songlines

Cecil Sharp Project - Child's Song / Barbara Allen

2011-05-02T17:54:00.001Z

Child's Song / Barbara Allen
Sharp was struck by the cross-generational interest in singing in the Appalachians. His diaries frequently mention songs given to him by children and teenagers and their desire to perform for him and Maud on their visits.
Barbara Allen was one such, this version collected from Ellie Johnson of Hot Springs, North Carolina.

Caroline Herring, Steve Knightley, Andy Cutting, Kathryn Roberts,
Jackie Oates, Jim Moray, Leonard Podolak, Patsy Reid

Cecil Sharp Project - Dear Kimber

2011-04-18T18:28:00.001Z

Important ticket info

2011-04-04T09:02:00.002Z

Almost 90% of the 2011 festival tickets are now sold.

This has never happened before at this early date, so if you’re thinking about coming to the festival this year we would recommend you make your decision quickly.

It is difficult to say how quickly the final 10% will go we have never experienced this level of demand before, but once they've gone that's it, we have no extra tickets to release.

Early bird offer ending

2011-03-31T05:57:00.003Z

Today is the last day for the earlybird offer tickets - from midnight tonight the tickets rise to their full price.

Our ticket sales are way ahead of where we've been before and we WILL CERTAINLY SELL OUT well in advance of the festival, and probably in the next month or so.

Please don't leave it too late as once they've gone, that's it - we don't have any more to release.

Full ticket details here

Cecil Sharp Project feature in Shropshire Star

2011-03-23T19:01:00.003Z

Feature in the Shropshire Star today - click on image for PDF version

Andy Cutting & Patsy Reid

2011-03-23T12:51:00.003Z

Andy Cutting and Patsy Reid working on the Cecil Sharp Project
photo by Carey Gough

Cecil Sharp Project Press Day

2011-03-21T18:10:00.006Z

We had an open house on the Cecil Sharp Project this afternoon, with the press invited to spend some time in and around the house interviewing artists.

The articles for the project will be appearing online and in-print in the coming weeks, here's a few shots from the day...

Songlines Top 10 Festival Award

2011-03-17T14:21:00.003Z

Really pleased to say we've been given the accolade of being one of Songlines Magazines Top 10 Summer Festivals of 2011.

Full details and more in their upcoming festivals supplement.

Site developments for 2011

2011-03-08T11:15:00.002Z

This year there are a handful of changes to the marquees on site

Marquee 2 will be replaced by a new larger Clearspan marquee with increased capacity, providing a much more comfortable space with better sight lines.

Sabrina will be replaced with a scaled down version of our marquee two, blue and yellow tent; again this will be made more comfortable providing more space for workshops and acoustic performances.

Dance Tent will be a new larger, better quality tent with extra seating. There will also be a new dance floor covering the whole floor space at 1000sq mtrs (25m x 40m).

Children’s Marquee will be almost twice the size of last year’s tent, again to give more capacity and make sure kids have even more fun.

The whole idea behind the marquees with extra capacity is to reduce the need for “House Full” signs going up.

Screens the two large screens remain in the main marquee, but over the past couple of years we've noticed many people love to sit on the grass outside the marquee and listen. We're going to install a huge screen here so you can still sit outside the marquee and not miss a thing (you can see the screen in action here)

T-Shirt Competition

2011-02-11T14:23:00.003Z

T-Shirt Competition
win a family ticket to the festival!

The warts and all feedback form at the end of last years' festival has been important in shaping the 2011 event. One of the common themes related to the shirts - you loved the quality, but not the designs...so here we are asking for your help!

The Prize
- A family ticket (2 adults, 2 youths) with camping to the 2011 festival
- An invitation to the festival reception, Sat 27th August
- Full acknowledgement in the programme
- Free t-shirts that feature your design
- Warm fuzzy feeling seeing hundreds of people wearing your shirt

Artistic Brief
We're very open-minded about the design, so will leave this to your imagination.

If you're looking for pointers, then a design that is inspired by, or reflects one or more of : folk music, Shrewsbury Folk Festival, the tradition, performance, Shrewsbury etc. would be good places to start.

The image would be placed on the front of a t-shirt (and can be any size from a small logo to something that covers the whole of the shirt).

How to enter
Entries can be submitted electronically as .jpg, .pdf or .ai formats (minimum 300dpi please) to Neil Pearson
Please contact Neil if you'd like to submit an entry on disc or through the post.

Closing date Closing date is 31 March 2011.

Any questions either contact me direct or leave a post on the blog.

C# article

2011-02-07T14:19:00.003Z

In January we were approached to write a feature about the Cecil Sharp Project for the English Dance and Song Magazine - writing about something we're organising, but that hasn't yet happened was a tricky brief, but actually turned out to be a useful exercise as it made us reflect on previous work and look forward to the upcoming project.....here's the article in full (it will be published in the March issue of the EDS magazine

In mid-March 2011 eight traditional and contemporary folk artists gather together in a 16th Century farmhouse in Shropshire, where they’ll be given seven days in rural isolation to create new works that have a resonance and relevance to the life and work of Cecil Sharp.

The project is a joint commission between Shrewsbury Folk Festival and EFDSS, and immediately following the residential part of the project the artists will premiere the new works at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury, and then directly on to London where they will perform the concert in two shows at Cecil Sharp House.

The musicians are drawn from the widest possible definition of folk, and the eight artists cover traditional English players, British contemporary folk artists through to a Canadian folk/rock band frontman, and an American singer/songwriter with a degree in American folklore. Bringing the talents of Steve Knightley, Jim Moray, Kathryn Roberts, Andy Cutting, Patsy Reid, Jackie Oates, Leonard Podolak and Caroline Herring together sounds like a great idea, but with such an eclectic line-up and a very broad artistic brief, it’s hard to even begin to imagine what the results may be.

Perhaps a good yardstick would be the Shrewsbury Folk Festival’s Darwin Song Project, a similar multi-artist project put together to celebrate the bi-centennial of Charles Darwin, Shrewsbury’s most famous son. Here artists, including Chris Wood, Karine Polwart, Rachael McShane and Jez Lowe were tasked with writing new songs related to the life and legacy of Darwin. The resulting songs were uniformly excellent, and many have found their way onto the individual artists’ solo albums and into their live sets; the resulting Darwin Song Project album has been well received all over the world.

Where Darwin was an obvious target with the high profile of the celebrations, and a well documented world of differing opinions and viewpoints, the decision to task artists with creating new work relating to Sharp appears, on the surface at least, to be a trickier brief.

While all the artists for the Cecil Sharp Project had some background knowledge of Sharp and his efforts to chronicle dance and song, there is obviously going to be plenty of research and preparatory work from everyone before they throw themselves of the intensity of a residential project with a demanding time restriction.

This is where the joint commission aspect of the project really comes into play – although the project is being managed and organised by Shrewsbury Folk Festival, it’s very much a partnership with EFDSS. Soon after the eight artists were selected, EFDSS supplied them with literature and resource material, and the artists have had exclusive and early access to Sharp’s transcribed American diaries which are now available on the EFDSS website. So where the festival is providing much of logistical and management aspect of the project, the breadth and quality of the support, and material available to the artists from EFDSS is what adds a rich dimension to the whole concept.

With the full array of resources available from EFDSS, and the information that is already in the public domain, the source material covers a daunting amount of ground, and it’s obvious this is a very open ended project, open to many different interpretations. This fact is reinforced by the direction that has been given to the artists by the commissioning team; part of the contracted artistic brief includes

“….the resulting songs and tunes are to have some relevance to Cecil Sharp; they may draw from any aspect of his life, work, legacy and impact, or may be interpretations of collected songs and tunes…”
“…any approach the artists feel is appropriate – we’re happy for the house to find its own way…”
By offering up such an unrestricted canvas, the material that comes out of the project are going to be difficult to predict and certainly exciting.

This unpredictability is all part of the design of the project; the partnership of EFDSS with Shrewsbury is eye-catching, as while Shrewsbury books many British Folk artists, it has what could be described as a progressive booking policy; it is a new venture for EFDSS and forms part of their fledgling but expanding artists’ development programme.

This progressive attitude is certainly reflected in the artists chosen for the project. Given a free rein on the final eight, the project directors were well aware that they were treading on ‘hallowed ground’ producing work on Sharp, and that they would most likely come under heavy scrutiny from the folk community for their selections.

With that in mind they went ahead and booked a Canadian banjo player, and a Georgia based US singer/songwriter (who are both fairly infrequent visitors to the UK), and added them to a range of UK based artists who include a Scottish fiddle player, and the front man of the biggest folk ‘stadium’ band around.

The final eight could hardly be described as a conservative selection, but in the true spirit of Sharp, and the constant state of flux traditional music forever finds itself in, the convergence of these artists and their different experiences will result in songs and tunes that will connect with many people on many different levels.

The best guess is that at end of project the eight artists will have created new songs and tunes, perhaps uncovered something previously hidden away in the diaries, or will have re-worked something already chronicled; but the truth is that nine weeks away from the first day of the residential, nobody knows for sure until the concerts in Shrewsbury and London at the end of March.

Cecil Sharp Poster

2011-01-27T13:31:00.003Z

We've just signed off the Cecil Sharp poster - these A3 posters are printed on beautiful uncoated paper and will be used for promotion - they'll also be available for those who attend the shows in March.

2011 SFF ad

2011-01-20T12:50:00.002Z

The ads for this years festival are now complete.

There are various adverts for different publications - here's the ad for a 'standard' size magazine.

HD videos now available

2011-01-15T08:09:00.002Z

We've just started uploading full HD videos to our Youtube site.

If you have a fast enough connection then select 1080p from the pop-up menu that appears in the bottom right hand corner of the video after you've started playing it.

We'll be uploading more over the coming weeks.

Cecil Sharp Feature in Shropshire Star

2011-01-02T08:52:00.002Z

Happy New Year!

We're gearing up for an important year at Shrewsbury Folk Festival....

- our Shrewsbury Hive Concerts continue all the way through the year (and into 2012)

- our joint commission with EFDSS, the Cecil Sharp Project takes place in March

- and we're working hard to make the festival in August our best ever!

Between Christmas and New Year, the Shropshire Star ran a large feature on the Cecil Sharp Project, it's copied below.

click the image for full size PDF version
(with thanks to the Shropshire Star)

Line-up for 2011

2010-12-19T10:10:00.001Z

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

2010-12-16T11:42:00.002Z

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

2010-12-12T12:25:00.001Z

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

2010-12-10T11:58:00.001Z

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

2010-12-09T12:40:00.002Z

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

2010-12-03T10:21:00.002Z

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!

2010-11-22T18:09:00.004Z

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

2010-11-17T09:14:00.002Z

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

2010-11-10T11:18:00.002Z

Upcoming Hive concerts

Ade Edmondson & The Bad Shepherds - Rise

2010-11-04T12:39:00.005Z

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....

2010-11-03T13:27:00.002Z

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

2010-10-16T17:22:00.003Z

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

2010-09-16T12:20:00.002Z

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

2010-09-14T09:00:00.002Z

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

2010-08-31T07:28:00.003Z

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

2010-08-25T18:22:00.002Z

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.....

2010-08-25T17:08:00.003Z

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

2010-08-25T10:59:00.004Z

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

2010-08-23T13:58:00.001Z

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

2010-08-23T10:55:00.003Z

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?

2010-08-20T12:02:00.003Z

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

2010-08-20T08:24:00.003Z

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!

2010-08-18T11:36:00.001Z

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

2010-08-14T13:21:00.004Z

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

2010-08-08T07:53:00.002Z

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

2010-08-02T10:19:00.003Z

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

2010-07-17T08:19:00.002Z

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

2010-07-17T06:56:00.001Z

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

2010-07-08T10:54:00.002Z

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

2010-07-02T08:35:00.009Z

(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

2010-07-01T12:11:00.002Z

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

2010-06-27T16:57:00.006Z

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

2010-06-22T06:02:00.002Z

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

2010-06-21T10:06:00.002Z

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

2010-06-10T12:21:00.002Z

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)

2010-06-09T18:23:00.005Z

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

2010-06-09T17:14:00.003Z

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

2010-06-09T16:22:00.016Z

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

2010-06-01T17:01:00.000Z

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

2010-05-19T09:58:00.001Z

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

2010-05-12T18:04:00.004Z

(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

2010-05-04T16:18:00.002Z

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

2010-04-30T08:25:00.001Z

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

2010-04-26T09:35:00.002Z

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

2010-03-31T06:15:00.002Z

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!

2010-03-29T08:53:00.003Z

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

2010-03-28T08:31:00.002Z

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

2010-03-25T12:48:00.003Z

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

2010-03-10T16:10:00.002Z

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

2010-03-03T11:18:00.007Z

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

2010-02-22T13:34:00.003Z

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

2010-02-15T06:43:00.004Z

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

2010-02-09T10:44:00.002Z

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

2010-01-26T19:34:00.004Z

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

2010-01-11T17:08:00.003Z

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

2010-01-07T16:24:00.002Z

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