The festival t-shirts have arrived!

For this years' festival we have a range of styles and colours across a range of sizes including standard t-shirts, ladies fitted shirts, ladies strappy vests and childrens.

We’ll post details of all the shirts over the coming weeks (once we get through all the boxes they’ve arrived in!)

Here’s the first shirt.....

Shrewsbury Folk Festival Varsity Tee

Classic grey marl shirt, available in mens sizes and as a ladies fitted t-shirts.

A 2 colour print on both front and back that has been ‘aged’ to give the shirts a vintage look.

(click on images for an enlarged view)

Workshop Details

The timetable for workshops is finalised, and available for download here

Amongst the workshop highlights are harmonies with Nancy Kerr & James Fagan, dancing workshops from belly dancing to rapper to clog, there will be team of Sound Engineering lecturers from Birmingham Uni recording free demos, the Musicians' Union will be hosting sessions with advice for new artists.

There's a huge amount going on, and certainly something for everyone!

Workshops

As if the fantastic line up we can offer isn't enough there will be 50 - yes 50! - workshops to choose from at this year's festival.

There'll be sessions in everything from music, dance, singing, songwriting and we've even got some great workshops planned for our younger visitors in the Refolkus youth programme for people aged 12 to 25.

We're really excited about our workshops this year as it's the most we've ever put on. One advantage of the great venue that we have is that everything is on one site so you don't have to miss out on all the other fun at the festival.

And there are also going to be seven ceilidhs going on in our dance marquee over the Bank Holiday weekend including one by the Oysterband. They rarely perform as a ceilidh band these days so that will be a real treat!

If you still haven't got your tickets there are some full weekend tickets still available at http://www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/ or through 01746 768813.

We've sold out of day tickets for Sunday, but you can still get Friday evening, Saturday and Monday tickets.

See you there!

2008 Festival Layout and Map

The festival is fast approaching (only about 5 weeks to go as I write this), and everything is coming together very nicely.

The programming for all the venues, workshops etc. is all complete, and we now have the final festival layout complete

There are a couple of changes from last year, but nothing too drastic – here’s the map……pick your camping spot!

Improvers' session Tunebook

The long awaited Improvers' Session tunebook is now available for free download here.

Those of you who witnessed or heard about the sessions last year will be itching to brush up your tunes for 2008.

Whether you've been tin whistling since Tuesday or playing for a few years, you will find a great set of tunes to learn and play.

This year we have both Beginners and Improvers sessions so musicians can hop on board at any level, our in-house session crew will keep the tunes going! This year's book sees donations of favourite tunes by some famous names from the traditional music circuit - see if you can spot (and learn) them.

Hope to see you there - Izzy

Schools’ Project Round Up

The 2008 schools' project was a huge success, Damien, Bryony and Fiona worked all week in school and then the whole Demon Barber Roadshow descended on the Music Hall for a fantastic collaboration between the Roadshow and the school.

The week in school saw the trio work with every child in school, with 30 children chosen to be involved on stage in rapper, clogging, morris and song.


Here’s a review from the Shropshire Star (21 June 2008)

"If anybody in the audience at the Music Hall last night (FRI) came to see the Demon Barber Roadshow with a preconceived stereotype of what folk music was, just minutes in the company of this dynamic and high energy band must have dispelled those myths forever.

The Demon Barbers is no ordinary group - if there was ever a folk rulebook, they threw it away years ago. They combine a bass guitar and drums with a violin, melodeon, accordion and an English concertina with their own unique take on traditional English folk songs.

Add to the mix two talented clog dancers (Tiny Taylor and Fiona Bradshaw) and rapper and morris dancers and you've got a show that held the audience spellbound.

But last night Roadshow leader Damien Barber - who along with Lee Sykes, Andy Stephenson, David Hall and Will Hampson turned rapper dancing into a sight to behold with florescent swords - and singer and violinist Bryony Griffiths were only too delighted to be upstaged by the 30 children from Oxon School that they have been working with all week as part of Shrewsbury Folk Festival's schools project.

The children, varying from year two to six, took starring roles showing off the traditional folk music and dance skills they have learnt in just several days. As head teacher Mark Rogers said it will be an experience the children will never forget.

The Demon Barbers and their young Oxon protégés will be wowing the audiences again at Shrewsbury Folk Festival from August 22 to 25"

The project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, will continue in 2009 and 2010 with traditions from the rest of Great Britain – more details to follow next year.

Demon Barber Roadshow Tickets - FREE!!

We have the full Demon Barber Roadshow at the Music Hall in Shrewsbury on Friday 20th June; entry is by invitation only but here’s your chance to win tickets for this private show!

As is normal, we kept some tickets for the show available for guests of the band, and they’ve kindly made these available as giveaways......

We have 5 pairs of tickets on offer for the concert – it’s Friday 20th June, The Music Hall, Shrewsbury (show starts 7:30pm)

To enter the draw, please send an email to neil@sff.co.uk (please replace the sff.co.uk with shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk, thanks).

We’ll draw 5 pairs out early next week and will email the lucky winners – demand for these will be high, so please only enter if you can attend. Good luck!

Schools’ Project and the Heritage Lottery Fund

We’re proud to announce that we’ve secured almost £26,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to deliver a unique folk music project to local primary schools over the next three years.

Each year there will be a week-long project which sees folk artists go into local schools and work with children to pass on traditional folk music, dance and drama skills; this year the project will concentrate on traditional folk arts from England, and then look in turn at the folk heritage of Wales and Scotland.

We have Damien Barber, Bryony Griffith and Fiona Bradshaw from the Demon Barber Roadshow working at Oxon Primary School for a full week starting Monday 16th June, and this is followed by a full Demon Barber Roadshow evening performance on Friday 20th June at the Music Hall, Shrewsbury.

Each year the musicians and bands working in school will also be booked to perform at the festival, where the all festival attendees (including the school children and their families) will have chance to work with the musicians again.

We proud to have the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund for this innovative project, and believe this is an important part of the festival, as well as being vital for the continuation of folk arts in Great Britain.

Eilen Jewell Radio Session

Eilen Jewell will be a name new to almost all of those coming to the festival this year – her and her band are a fantastic live act and we know they’ll be a huge success in Shrewsbury.

Those wanting a peek as to what to expect on Friday and Saturday this year, Eilen played a couple of songs with her full band on Bob Harris’ show this Thursday.

The listen again feature is available for the next 7 days (until 5th June), the songs and interview are about 33 minutes in.


The live session is here http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/ (look for the ‘more shows’ link, on the LISTEN box).

The festival page with an MP3 excerpt and video is here
http://www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/line-up/eilen-jewel-2008.shtml

Stay at SFF in a tipi for FREE!

Free tipi hire prize draw

We know you're guaranteed a great four days of music, dance and entertainment at Shrewsbury Folk Festival but what better way to enjoy it than by staying in your own tipi - for free! With only 20-30 tipis available the odds of winning are very high

The festival has teamed up with The Tipi Company which will be renting out luxury tipis on the site for the first time. And they are offering you the chance to win a completely free stay in a tipi if you book your accommodation before June 30.

So forget about the hassle of finding and packing all that camping gear and instead live like a king with a genuine tipi which contains everything you need for a fabulous four day festival!
Each tipi has a carpet and 6 comfortable faux fur covered mattresses which are spread out around the central fire bowl. So whether you're enjoying a few days with the family or mixing with friends old or new, your tipi will be the place to be!

All you have to do is go to www.tipihire.com/sff.htm - and book your tipi or a luxury bell tent.

But to be entered in the draw you must book before June 30. If you are juggling finances a deposit option is available. If your name is pulled out of the hat in the winning draw you'll get your money back and enjoy your stay at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival for free.

BBC Young Musician of the Year

If any of you managed to catch the fantastic BBC Young Musician of the Year finals on TV over the weekend, you would have seen a regular attendee of the festival taking part in the event.

Jim Molyneux has played at the festival for the past two years, and his appearance in 2008 will make it three in a row.

Jim won our open mic competition in 2006, and as is tradition, was invited to the 2007 festival as a performer…he came and performed with a young quartet called 4Square, made up himself, Nicola Lyons, James Meadows and Dan Day.

All four of 4Square are excellent musicians; they worked hard and were a real hit at the festival…so much so that we invited them back for 2008.

What makes Jim’s achievement all the more impressive is that his appearance in the BBC competition was as an accomplished percussionist, and his work on the folk scene is as an equally exceptional accordionist.

We send our congratulations to Jim, we are sure that your talent and your personality will take to the top in whatever musical endeavor you wish to take!

Be sure to catch 4Square at the festival, they play a great set!

2008 Festival Posters

Following on from the success of our Hatch Show Print posters from last year, we decided to continue and develop our relationship with the Nashville company and use them for our 2008 posters.

We're thrilled with the way they've turned out, and expect these to be even more popular than the 2007 posters - we're proud to be a small part of Hatch Show Print's rich history, and we see them producing a new piece of poster art for our festival in the upcoming years.

Here's a little history on Hatch Show Print and our 2008 poster......

Formed in 1879, Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest letter press printers in America, based in Nashville they have a uniquely identifiable art style, and an unrivalled history in producing posters for country music's biggest names as well as many multi-national and local companies.

The posters are all hand produced using letters and imagery from their own library - many of the letters, logos and images have been used repeatedly over many decades.

Using the same printing techniques over many years has kept an authentic turn of the century feel to their work - every machine is hand operated and every single poster hand made. No corners are cut and the results are stunning pieces of poster art.
Our posters are printed on uncoated 80lb cover, cream coloured with flecks in it that look like recycled paper - they're heavy, solid posters that are perfect for framing.

We opted for a three colour design, which is the maximum Hatch will allow, it means each poster has been individually passed through a press three times (once for each colour); it's a precise and time consuming process but the results are stunning and distinct from any other printing process.

These posters are available to buy prior to the festival from Fish Records, any copies that remain will be sold at the festival.

Tipi hire at the festival

We've teamed up with the Tipi Company to offer some stunning accommodation for this years' festival.

Forget the hassle of finding and packing all that camping gear and instead live like a king with a genuine Tipi or a luxury Bell Tents. They contain everything you need for a fabulous four day festival!

Each Tipi has a carpet and 6 comfortable faux fur covered mattresses which are spread out around the central fire bowl.

Even though it's August and warm enough during the day, one of he joys of a Tipi is being able to have a real fire for extra warmth and comfort in the evening. Perfect for you and your friends to relax and unwind after an exciting day.

For full details, please visit the Tipi Company

Seth Lakeman Competition / Early Bird Tickets

EARLY BIRD TICKET OFFER ENDING SOON

Our early-bird ticket price comes to an end at the end of this month, and 31st March is the last day we will sell tickets at the lowest price.

Ticket prices are currently £75 for an adult 4 day ticket, and £37.50 for youths (aged 11-17), but ticket prices will rise on April 1st, there are full details of all ticket breakdowns here

Last year the festival sold out, and ticket sales are much stronger this year and we will definitely sell out again – it’s difficult to gauge exactly when this will happen, but please don't leave it too late!

SETH LAKEMAN COMPETITION

Seth and his superb band are playing at the Buttermarket in Shrewsbury on 27th April, and we have two tickets to give away to this concert.

Everyone who buys (or has already bought) an early bird ticket will be entered into the draw to win free tickets to Seth's Shrewsbury gig in April.

We'll contact the winner in the first week in April. Good Luck!

Those wishing to purchase tickets for Seth's show can do so on 0871 230 1083 or direct from the venue.

Refolkus 12 - 25 years

Following last years' success of our programme aimed at 12 - 25 yr olds, Izzy and Cait have been working hard on a revamped youth programme - now called Refolkus.

It will centre round the "Big Shed" by the entrance to the festival site - now called The Reef.

12-25 year olds will be able to attend a wide range of song, dance and instrumental workshops. A programme of inspirational workshop tutors should help to ensure everyone has a good time and learns lots of new stuff, whatever their level.

Each evening around teatime the Reef will host a session and a chance to socialize and plan the evening's entertainment.

We'll post more details closer to the event!

Folk Alliance Conference, Memphis, TN

Later this month festival directors Alan Surtees and Neil Pearson will represent the Shrewsbury Folk festival at the annual North American Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tennessee.

The conference, from February 20th-24th, is one of the largest gatherings of folk musicians, record labels, agents and festival organisers in the world, and is an important event in the folk music calendar.

We’ll both be involved speaking on panels over the weekend; Alan will be discussing ‘what is required to stage a successful grass roots event’, and I'll be a panel member on ‘what is going on outside North America in the World of folk’.

We’re proud to be involved in the conference, and the chance to represent the Shrewsbury Folk Festival at such a high profile event is a real honour and recognition of just how much the festival has grown.

We’re obviously looking forward to the trip, as well as a working conference it is full of music with hundreds of artists holding official showcases – we will post some photos on our return!

Nancy Kerr, James Fagan & Robert Harbron

We're now very close to completing our line-up, but still have a few pieces to add to the jigsaw over the coming weeks.

We’re pleased to announce that we have added Nancy Kerr, James Fagan & Robert Harbron to the main concert schedule; Nancy & James were brilliant at the 2006 festival, and it's great to have them with us again for 2008.

They will play on both our main concert stages as Kerr Fagan Harbron.

Nancy & James will be on the festival site all weekend, so there may be other opportunities to see and hear them (workshops etc) – we’ll confirm everything a little closer to the event.

Sessions & Workshops

As well as a full concert schedule we have a huge and varied range of music & dance workshops and sessions at the festival; and tailor these to cover all ability levels from improvers right through to the more experienced.

The full details of these events all come together a little later in the year, but we’ve already finalised our Irish Session.

We have Lúnasa at the festival this year, and are pleased to confirm that Kevin Crawford, the band’s World Class Irish flute player will lead our Irish Session.

This is a rare opportunity for festival attendees to come and join in a session and share a tune with one of the World’s finest Irish musicians – everyone’s invited, and it’s guaranteed to be a memorable session for all!

We’ll post more details closer to the event, as well as information on the other sessions and workshops.

2008 Details and our new website

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We're proud to announce the details of our 2008 festival, and tickets are on sale from 9am, 1st January 2008.

Below you'll find details of some of the acts who will headline the festival, and information on our early bird ticket prices.

Our 2008 line-up includes
Richard Thompson
Bellowhead
Oysterband
Lunasa
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
The Tim Van Eyken Band
Pete Morton
Rory McLeod
New Rope String Band
Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman
The Demon Barber Roadshow
ColvinQuarmby
Steve Tilston
The Wilsons
Bella Hardy Trio
Eilen Jewell Band
John Wesley Harding
Kerfuffle
Pete Lockett & Joji Hirota
Boka Halat
Cloudstreet
The Doonans
The Wilsons
Braebach
Sheelanagig
4Square
Elbow Jane
.....and many more!

Ticket Details

Tickets are on sale from 9am, 1st January 2008, and until April 1st they are available at a special early bird rate.

Full ticket details are available here, but the main 4 days ticket breakdowns are:

Adult £75
Youth (11-17) £44.50
Family (2 adults, 2 youths) £202.50
Children under 11 FREE

New website

To coincide with the 2008 announcement we have an updated and totally re-designed website – amongst other things it has more complete details of artists booked and who is on when, there’s information about stewarding, and a comprehensive festival FAQ.
Our website can be found here

Line-up sneaky peek

We’re putting the finishing touches to our new website in preparation for the announcement of the line-up, and the start of ticket sales on Jan 1st.

To whet your appetite for the 1st, here’s an exclusive glimpse at some of the line-up for 2008……..amongst the acts booked we have Richard Thompson (solo) , Lunasa and the Oysterband (both as a concert band AND a ceilidh band!).

Check back on the 1st for a full list and ticket details.

2008 Line-up announcement and ticket details

We will be officially announcing our line-up on January 1st 2008, and tickets will be available to purchase from this date – as usual you will be able to buy tickets online, over the phone or through the post.

The line-up and tickets details will be announced on our main website, here on the blog, in an email to our mailing list and to the press.

If you would like to buy tickets between now and the New Year (perhaps as gifts!), then this is possible, but ONLY over the telephone – you’ll need to ring Sandra on 01746 768813.

Hope you all have a great Christmas, and we’ll be in touch in 2008!

Festival Videos

We're busy putting the 2008 festival together, and we're expecting to announce artists and ticket details towards the end of this year, with tickets on sale in the New Year.....only a month or two to wait!

In the meantime, we have our videos from the festival on our website - they're broken down into days and there's almost an hours' worth of performances and interviews.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2007 videos

Submitted photos

In addition to the official photographs for the festival (available on our website here), we’ve opened up a gallery where festival attendees can submit their own pictures.

The details are listed on our website, but this is the chance for up to 5 of your pictures be hosted on the Shrewsbury Folk Festival website, and be viewed by over 100,000 people throughout the year!

We're sure you all have some great pictures out there, and we'd be thrilled to see them and share them with others.

There are no restrictions on what you can submit; we’ll happily host pictures of musicians, the site, your friends – basically, if it’s related to the 2007 festival and you’re happy to send it to us, then we’d be pleased to display it in our gallery.

2007 Festival Merchandise Blow Out!

We have a small number of shirts left over from the festival this year – we sold a large number of shirts over the weekend, but it’s inevitable that we would have a limited number of styles and sizes remaining.

We’re offering these shirts at just
£4 for adult sizes and
£3 for the child shirts
postage is £1.50 regardless of how many shirts you order.

We don’t have a huge amount of anything left, but those that are very limited are highlighted in italics and greyed out. As we sell out we'll remove the item (or size) from the blog.

If you'd like to order any of the items below please contact Sandra, email and phone details are on the main festival website, thanks.

The details of availability and sizes are below, if you'd like exact measurements these are listed in the comments section of this post.

Blue Small Logo
Small , Large, XLarge

Brown Small Logo
XLarge

Childs Logo Shirt Orange
Medium, Large

Green S*F*F fitted girls/ladies shirt
Small , Medium, Large, XLarge

Green S*F*F - unisex
sold out

Black Large Logo
Medium, Large, XLarge

We also have a small number of posters available;
these are rolled in a tube and cost £4.00 plus £1 postage.

Artists' report - part 4

The festival’s patron, John Jones of the Oysterband, came to check out the site and was full of praise for the new home of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

The Oysterband played the festival in The Quarry last year but John said the new location had sealed the success of the event.

“It’s a fantastic venue. I have walked around the site and looked at it and it’s great, everything in one place.”

John also had great words for the main stage at the showground site – “Any artist would want to perform on that stage – the lights are good, the sound is great, it’s a brilliant venue to play.”

A stalwart of festivals and an artist who has performed many times at the festival is comedian and musician Keith Donnelly. He performed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and reflected on the festival he has seen to grow over the years.

“I’m never happier than at a folk festival,” he said. “A folk festival is the best audience bar none – I really enjoyed this year but I’ve never been heckled by so many dogs before!”

Keith, who performed at the festival in its town centre location last year, summed up the 2007 event. “It feels like the Shrewsbury Folk Festival has come home.”

Artists' report - part 3

Kathryn Tickell was another artist who made the long journey to Shrewsbury – despite a 5.30am start from her North East home, Kathryn and her band had the festival audience on their feet. She’s no stranger to Shropshire having performed in Bridgnorth several times before, but it was her first time at Shrewsbury.

She said the early start had been worth it: “I really enjoyed the gig. I had the feeling it was going to be a disaster – one of the band had been performing the ceilidh tent for two hours and one had to run over to be in time and had been at Shrewsbury on Friday, then at Towersey on Saturday and came back to the festival on Sunday. But it was a really good crowd.”

Another group delighted with the Shrewsbury set-up was contemporary folk duo Megson, who performed on the main stage on Sunday afternoon before carrying out a songwriting workshop and another set in marquee two.

Their fresh approach of combining traditional folk elements with influences like Simon and Garfunkel received rousing support with the Shrewsbury crowd.

“This is the nicest festival we’ve performed at this year, “said Stu Hanna. “The site’s very good.” The other half of Megson, Debbie Palmer, enjoyed the backstage facilities too: “Some of the places we’ve played you end up having to change and put up your make-up in the toilets – it’s not glamorous!”

The “really good” crowd vibe continued into the final day of the festival on Monday which saw the event culminate with legend Paul Brady receiving a standing ovation for his incredible set which marked the end of a hugely successful festival.

Earlier, the American bluegrass four piece Crooked Still had got a rapturous response for their storming performance which saw cello player Rushad Eggleston strip to his underwear - having only started in a shirt, boxer shorts and a hat!

Despite having jetted in from Denmark following three days at the Tonder festival, the performance was one of the highlights of the festival, packing out the main stage on Monday afternoon. The band’s catnap backstage in their hired van helped them catch up from their 4.30am start for their flight to Manchester.

Rushad and banjo player Greg Liszt both said a lack of sleep often gave the band the adrenaline rush they needed to perform well.

“It was a great audience, a great feeling,” said Rushad. “You could feel the energy.” The artists’ facilities also got the thumbs up from the group despite their fleeting visit – with Rushad’s high jinks with sugarcubes, washing up liquid, and leaping over tables livening up the backstage complex! .”

Artists' report - part 2

One band adding an international flavour to this year’s festival was Canadian trio The Wailin’ Jennys. Their set included everything from an Emmylou Harris classic to a song inspired by a mosquito at 4am and ended with ‘One Voice’, a song that perfectly illustrated why the Jennys are enjoying such outstanding success.

Nicky Mehta, one of the founding Jennys, said the crowd at Shrewsbury reflected the growing popularity that folk based music is enjoying across the UK and the rest of the world.
”We did a handful of concerts in the UK last summer but we’ve been busy in the US and Canada this year. It’s great to be in Shrewsbury.
”Looking out at the crowd, there was a real mix of ages including young people. You can really feel the resurgence of folk and traditional music in England.”

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Richard Shindell travelled from Buenos Aries to perform at Shrewsbury – his first performance in England in 10 years. Shrewsbury was the only folk festival he played on a whirlwind tour of seven concerts in the UK.
Despite very little sleep because of his gruelling schedule, Richard and his guitar held the audience in the main stage spellbound on Sunday evening, with a set that showed his talent as a writer and performer.

Speaking after his afternoon performance in marquee two, he said the audience had been attentive and he had been looking forward to performing on the main stage.
“It’s virgin territory for me, very few people know who I am. Out of the thousands in the audience maybe a couple of hundred will know who I am. I like that – it gives me a chance to show what I can do, and they won’t have heard my jokes before so they’ll laugh!”
Richard, who also did a ‘meet the artist’ session, was full of praise for the festival. “It seems a great place, everything is wonderful!”

Artists' report - part 1

Over the course of the festival, we had Jo (our festival PR advisor) speaking to a huge range of artists and gauging opinion on the festival and the new site – she obviously had a ball speaking to the artists, and the results are a four part piece that will appear on the blog over the next few days………

So, it’s all over for another year – but what did some of the artists think of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival at its new home?

As well as fantastic all-on-one-site facilities for festival goers, performers enjoyed a new approach to hospitality, with a special backstage complex of green rooms and a refreshment area to relax in.

Saturday night headliners Show of Hands had played the festival at its original location in Bridgnorth twice before but it was their first time in Shrewsbury. They raised the roof of the massive marquee to a standing room only crowd of 3,200 who packed the main stage to hear them.

Steve Knightley said it had come as no surprise that Shrewsbury had blossomed into the festival it has become.

“It was always a really well run festival, led by an ambitious organisation - you always had the feeling it would be going places.”

Performing at Shrewsbury saw the pair finishing off a punishing schedule of summer festivals, but Phil Beer said they had loved it.

“We been performing at about two festivals a weekend – anything from 500 paying guests at Dartmoor to this crowd at Shrewsbury - it’s been a mega year but we love it.”

Finishing off with an encore of ‘Roots’, the rallying call to rediscover our heritage through music like folk, Steve Knightley paid tribute to the crowd who responded “as only a folk festival crowd can”.

It was the first time at Shrewsbury for another act which takes folk festivals by storm – Salsa Celtica, the high energy performers who fuse traditional and latin music in an amazing blend.

Lead vocal Lino Rocha, who lead the band of 10 through a fast and furious performance, said Shrewsbury was in a prestigious list of other festivals the band had performed at this summer.

Speaking back stage before their late night session saw festival goers dancing in the aisle of the main marquee, Lino said the band’s schedule this summer had included Cambridge, the world music festival WOMAD and the “one where there is lots of mud” (aka Glastonbury). Salsa Celtica were going on to perform at gigs in Spain and the US in the month after Shrewsbury.

The band, made up of an eclectic mix of nationalities including Venezuelan, Scottish, Australian, Irish and Tanzanian, said they had been treated like “royalty” at the festival and thoroughly approved of the incredible main marquee, again full to capacity. Another happy customer!

Photos

There are a good number of photos from the festival already online, the official pictures by Sabine Hutchinson from Virtual Shropshire are here

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday

but there are hundreds of shots on the web from visitors to the festival,

for starters try this
there are more on flickr if you just search for Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

You should easily find pictures of almost all the acts up there - expect there to be lots of Rushad from Crooked Still on your journey for pictures!

If you have a gallery of shots from this years festival please leave a link in the comments, thanks.

It's over!

Well, we all hope you had a great festival and travelled home safely.

From an organisers point of view things went pretty smoothly, which is in no small part thanks to the stewards and you, the festival attendees.

We'll post some photos later this week, but we'd love you to leave your comments on the blog letting us know what we did right and what we did wrong - we'll take these all into account as we plan for 2008.

For me Crooked Still were the best act of the weekend, closely followed by Bellowhead and Richard Shindell....let us know what worked for you!

It's here!!! (well it will be tomorrow)

The site has really come together today, with traders and caterers setting up for the weekend, the food tents, Panic Circus and other tents have shot up throughout the day.

The stages are complete and the light and sound rigs are all close to completion – we’re just about all set!

Didn’t have much time for photos today – but managed a quick look inside a deserted marquee 2 before the chairs go in.

marquee 2 - in the traditional Shrewsbury colours

Hope you all have a great festival!

Travelling to the site

Our website has full maps and directions to the festival site, but for those of you using satellite navigation the GPS co-ordinates are

N 52 43 020
W 002 45 742

These will get you to within 15 feet of the main entrance, but you will see the top of the main marquee well before this!

The postal address of the site is

Berwick Road
Shrewsbury
SY1 2PF

Travel well, and we’ll see you over the weekend.

We’ll post pictures from the festival has it happens, and a full report after the event.

Site set up

We’re well into the swing of things now, and all our main marquees are up - the main marquee is nothing short of spectacular.

If you head into Shrewsbury down the Mount then you can see it peeking up from a sea of trees as you drive into town, it looks like something out of a fairy tale!

Here are a couple of pictures from the site.

Marquee 1 at Shrewsbury

Marquee 2, almost complete

We now have more stewards on site who are setting up the tents that we use for artists reception, merchandise etc., and certainly by tomorrow we should have the majority of the site ready to go.

Initial site preparations

Preparations on the site began in earnest today, and the set up team are working hard at getting things ready for Friday.

We’ve had a really productive day and all three of our big marquees, the SP Holding Main Stage, Marquee 2 and the dance marquee are in various stages of completion.

Watching the preparatory work for the biggest marquee (see picture in “Lighting the Festival”) was interesting – the guy ropes are held in by 6 foot plus pegs that are driven into ground by a modified compact excavator with a pneumatic hammer.



The main poles for the biggest marquee are now up, and we feel all 3 marquees will be close to completion (if not completed) by tomorrow – we’ll post a set of photos of the whole site on Tuesday evening.

Activities in the town

Although we’ve moved from the Quarry to the West Midlands Showground, we’re committed to involving locals and bringing the festival into town.

There is a full programme of dancing in the Square and Quarry on Saturday and Sunday, plus there will be dancing at the Wheatsheaf, the Boathouse and St Alkmunds on these days

For those watching the dancing in the Square on Sat & Sun, we’ve teamed up with Innocent Smoothies who will be in there with their smoothie van to give away drinks to anyone watching!

We have music sessions programmed in at the Bird in Hand and Wheatsheaf over the weekend, but as is usually the case, impromptu session could happen anywhere.

Programmes

The programmes arrived yesterday morning, all those who ordered one at the time they purchased their tickets (that’s 667 of you) will see a copy dropping through their letterbox over the next day or two.

The programme is full colour and includes bios on every artist appearing at the festival, and the timetable covers every single event from main concerts, to workshops, through to all the events happening in the town over the weekend.

The programme will be available to purchase from the merchandise stand over the festival weekend (NOT at the ticket office as in previous years).

If you live in Shrewsbury or are arriving in town before the festival, then copies are available NOW at the main tourist information office in the Music Hall.

Sunshine and Shrewsbury

We've been watching the long term forecasts for months now (they've been all over the place!), but as the festival is now within touching distance the forecasts are beginning to settle down and we have a very good chance of getting an accurate prediction.

Here’s the current forecast, 8 days out from the festival – at this point everything looks set fair for warm days and mild nights…perfect!

Here’s the link for the updated forecast on Metcheck, which you can check anytime.

Lighting the festival

This year we’ve really put some thought and effort into how we light the festival; our aim being that when night falls the festival will have a real atmosphere.

The marquees and tents will all have festoon lighting, in a variety of colours, around the outside, and the main marquee (pictured below) will have rope lights on the guy ropes.

main marquee

The showground has a good number of established trees on site, and we will be adding lights to some of these which will create a beautiful effect as well as providing ambient evening/night lighting.

We’ve also changed the lighting inside the marquees - the stage lights in the main performance areas, as well as in the dance marquee have all changed and improved from previous years.

We've also installed permanent lighting to illuminate camping areas, these are on a timer and will switch off automatically in the early hours.

Ticket details

For those of you who’ve already bought tickets, here’s a quick reminder of how you pick up your wristbands on arrival.

Whether you booked online, over the phone or through the post, you will have had a receipt sent to you (either through the post or via email) – you need to bring this receipt with you to the festival where it will be exchanged at the ticket office for your wristbands. The wristbands are your ticket to the venues, and we will fit these to your wrists at the ticket office.

If you book after August 20th, then we’ll hold the receipt for you at the ticket office for collection along with your tickets.

We still have a small number of full 4 day tickets available, although these are selling out quickly – if you don’t have your tickets yet then please order as soon as possible!

Shrewsbury Town Centre

Although we've moved from the Quarry to the West Midlands Showground, we're still very close to the town centre.

The festival site is a very gentle and interesting 10-15 minute stroll along the river loop to the town centre

For those who prefer transport, we have free buses running from the site into the town centre every 15 minutes (Sat & Sun, 9am - 6pm), they will drop off and pick up at the railway station (very close to the castle), and The Square on High Street (next to the Old Market Hall, a beautiful building built in 1596). All you will need is your festival wristband for travel on these buses.

For a map of the town centre, try this town centre map

If your looking for somewhere to eat off the festival site try this food map

Final Site Layout and Map

We've now finalised the layout for the 2007 festival, and the programme has been sent to be printed - there are a couple of changes from the map we posted a month or two ago.

Hopefully this will give you an idea as to overall layout and for those of you camping on site, will give you an idea as to where you might like to pitch up!

click to view larger map

If you'd like to view a printable, high quality copy of the map you can download a copy here

Free Festival Stickers

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

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

Window Sticker

Instrument case sticker

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

The festival site and the River Severn

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

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

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

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

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

Welsh Bridge Webcam

Frankwell Quay Webcam

Festival t-shirts

Our festival shirts have arrived!

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

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

Blue Small logo shirt

Brown Small Logo Shirt

Black Large Logo Shirt

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

Childrens' shirt (no backprint)

2007 Folk Festival Schools Project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tunebook

The tunebook will be used as a basis for two improvers’ sessions.

This is an opportunity for those who play instruments and want to get involved in sessions, but who find it all a little too daunting or who just want to brush up their skills and improve confidence.

We will have experienced musicians on hand playing fiddle, mandolin, box & guitar, and they will help everybody who needs it.
You may learn as many or as few of the tunes from the Tunebook as you like, and the session leaders will be there to keep everything going and running smoothly; they’ll also answer any questions and help you with any musical queries in the sessions.

There will be one session in The Big Shed on Saturday, and one on Sunday in the bar area (which is huge) – we’ll have more details closer to the festival.

This is a first for Shrewsbury and we’re really excited – it’s an opportunity to get involved in a group session without any fear or worries. The leaders are there to help out and ensure you get the most out of session and will help people of every ability.

In the meantime, have a look at the tunebook here, and start practising!

Maps for the 2007 site

We’ve been putting the final touches to the layout of the festival over the past month or so and have spent time on site working out the final details – everything is coming together well and the transition to this new site has been smooth and trouble free.

Below are two maps to give you an idea as to how we're going to lay the festival out, we confident this is the final layout, although a map reflecting any changes will be printed in the festival programme.

This is the festival layout as it stands, along with a key showing
the positioning the marquees, camping areas etc.

click image for larger view

An aerial shot to give you an idea of the site and the internal roadways etc click image for larger view

Children’s and Youth’s Projects

We’re just putting the finishing touches to our programming for our younger audience – here are some of the details in advance of the official announcement.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival Schools Project
We’re going to spend a week in late June in a local primary school with members of 422 and Sunshine Arts.
422 will be providing instrumental, vocal and dance workshops to all classes – the details will be finalised on Monday but there will be a band performance, ceilidhs and clog dancing, a chance for pupils to play various instruments, a final group ceilidh, and for some of the older group an introduction to rapper sword dancing.
Sunshine Arts will work with the older pupils on a Mum & Tuk’ play which fuses traditional Caribbean Tuk dance and English Mummers plays; there are also opportunities for Caribbean clapping games and percussion workshops. This is an exciting and significant project which we’ll formally announce next week, with full details of the school and a timetable of events.

Youth’s workshops
'The Big Shed' (see post below) will host some superb workshops for youths, amongst those that we’ve already scheduled are a Longsword Dance workshop with Sue Coe and Ryburn Longsword, a Samba percussion workshop with Sam Pirt, and vocal harmony workshops with Matt Price and Stream of Sound

Family Ceilidh
On Sunday afternoon the dance tent will host a family ceilidh with 422.

We’ll officially announce full details of these next week on both the website and blog – thoughts and ideas are very welcome, please feel free to leave a comment on the blog, we read them all!

Youth programme ‘The Big Shed’

Our move to the West Midlands Showground means that we have more room and more opportunities for distinct programming; as a result of this we’re giving young people ‘The Big Shed’, a venue aimed at those aged from 12-25.

‘The Big Shed’ will have workshops from many of the artists performing at the festival – for example there will be individual workshops in songwriting, vocal harmony, melodeon, percussion and Longsword.

There will also be an ‘improvers’ instrumental workshop, aimed at those looking to gain confidence in playing in sessions.

After dark ‘The Big Shed’ will become a dance house or chill out zone exclusively for young people with a folk-DJ mixing both tunes and songs.

Line-up amendments

Sadly, due to unforeseen circumstances we’ve had to make a couple of small alterations to the line-up.

Patrick Street were due to play on Monday afternoon, but are sadly unable to make the festival – we’re currently looking at filling the slot and expect to announce an excellent new act over the next few days.

Bob Harris was scheduled to MC for a few hours on Sunday night but is now unable to be with us on that evening.

We’re all really disappointed that neither Patrick Street nor Bob will be at the 2007 festival, but they will obviously be on our lists for booking in 2008. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment.

We’ll announce new bookings on the blog and festival website as soon as we have them confirmed.

2007 Posters

Ltd Edition, numbered Hatch Show Print Posters

Formed in 1879, Hatch Show Print is one of the oldest letter press printers in America; based in Nashville they have a uniquely identifiable art style, and an unrivalled history in producing posters for country music’s biggest names as well as many multi-national and local companies.

The posters are all hand produced using letters and imagery from their own library – many of the letters, logos and images have been used repeatedly over many decades.

Using the same printing techniques over many years has kept an authentic turn of the century feel to their work – every machine is hand operated and every single poster hand made. No corners are cut and the results are stunning pieces of poster art.

Our posters are printed on uncoated 80lb cover, cream coloured with flecks that look like recycled paper – it’s perfect for framing.

We opted for a three colour design, which means each poster has been individually passed through a press three times (once for each colour); it’s a precise and time consuming process but the results are stunning and distinct from any other printing process (click the image for a much more detailed view).

As each poster is hand made, there are slight differences to every single poster – we had a limited print run of 200 posters and each one is individually numbered.

Dimensions (W x H)32.5cm x 58cm (12.8” x 22.8”)

We’re selling the posters prior to the festival as this will enable to you keep them in the best possible condition (rather than trying to keep one for 4 days over the festival weekend!). If there are any remaining posters then these will be available at the festival merchandise stall.

All orders will be shipped in strong postal tubes to keep the posters in perfect condition.

For more details or to purchase a poster, please visit Fish Records

Steward’s Party

Saturday April 14th was our steward’s party where all the stewards and those who hosted artists for the 2006 festival were invited to the main bar at the West Mid Showground – it’s a chance for us to say thanks to all those who help out and it’s a great way to meet up with friends both old and new.

Around 200 people from all over the country attended, with the vast majority arriving with tents, motorhomes or caravans and stopping overnight on-site (taking advantage of the superb weather!).

Thanks to all who made the effort, it was a great night with superb company and excellent food and drink; and it got our stay at the West Mid Showground off to a flying start! Thank you.

If you would like to steward at the festival there are full details on our website, if you're interested in hosting an artist then please contact us.

Planning the new site

Although we have already drawn up plans for how we intend to layout the main areas of the festival site (marquees, caterers, parking etc), we spent some time on the new festival site over the weekend looking at how to best utilise aspects of the Showground.


The picture above shows the showground and there are a good number of permanent buildings that we can use (just above the GRO of showground on the photo)– we’ll certainly use some as venues for sessions, workshops and ‘meet the artists’; we’re also currently considering a ‘youths only’ room, perhaps for workshops in the day and a chill out area for nights.

Much of this will fall into place as the festival draws nearer, but having so many buildings on site really opens up some exciting opportunities for us!