Dance at Shrewsbury

We take the dance aspect of our festival seriously, and are committed to providing a varied and exciting range of bands in our dance marquee, and include as many display sides as we can fit on the site (and in the town!) – the dance marquee is for everyone, so experiences and novice dancers are all welcome!

We’ve improved the access to the dance tent, so this year all you’ll need to do is follow the flags up the hill to the second field to find the dance tent bursting with a fantastic variety of music and dance styles.

We have some of the countries top bands, including Trinculo, Glorystrokes and the Oyster Ceilidh Band going back to their roots to play a rare ceilidh for Shrewsbury.
We also have the global groves of Boka Halat and European visitors from Germany the Brassberries plus the highly acclaimed Boldwood, and local band Ceilidhography

We have top callers, Dave Hunt, Baz Parkes, Pete Reece to name a few, who will lead you through the dances, so even if you’ve never been to a ceilidh before you will be guided through the moves with ease.

Most dances will also feature a display from some impressive Morris and dance display sides. There is also a full programme of dance workshops which include an opportunity to try out different Morris styles, have a go at Belly dancing and write a dance for the Boka Halat ceilidh on Sunday evening.

We have changed the programme to get more dancing opportunities in and on Sunday you can dance to two bands in one evening.

The lighting and ambiance has been improved this year, which together with its own bar makes the dance tent a great place to be even if you just want to listen, but I doubt your feet will let you!

Schools’ Project Photos & Roundup

The festival’s school’s project report and photos are now available as part of the main festival website – there are around a hundred photos of the school workshops and final concert performance available here
http://www.shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk/schools-project/index.shtml

The 30 children who performed with the Demon Barber Roadshow have all being invited to the festival, and the Demon Barber Roadshow are playing on both Sunday and Monday of the festival – Sunday is their ‘normal’ roadshow, and Monday afternoon sees them incorporating some of the work in school into their performance.

Full details of the performance times/venues are listed in the programme, and the school project continues in 2009 with Scottish Traditions.

T-Shirt #2 - The River

The second t-shirt is the ‘river’ shirt, a design that features a simple front design and a representation of the River Severn as it loops around Shrewsbury on the back; the names of all the artists performing at the festival represent the land around the river.






We have these shirts in two colours, ‘Olive’ and ‘Denim’ and they both feature the same two colour screen print on front and back. These are standard unisex fit shirts (no ladies fit on this design)

.....to save anyone looking, the festival site is just about where the Orchestra (of Ukulele Orchestra of GB) is written on the shirt!


click on each image for a more detailed view

Beer and bars

The bars and beers are (obviously) an important part of the festival, and this year the quality of the bars and the range available is going to be even better than ever…..we have a confirmed list of the beers that are going to be available (listed below), PLUS we will have a unrivalled range of ciders too!

Timothy Taylors Landlord, Best bitter
Enville Breweries Simpkiss Bitter, Enville Ale, Ginger Beer, Enville LPA
Ma Pardoes (Old swan brewery) Entire bitter, Dark Swan, Original
Hobsons Brewery Best bitter, Town Crier, Mild Ale, Pale Ale
3 Tunns Brewery XXX, Solstice, Best Bitter
Woods Quaff, Shropshire Lad, Shropshire Lass
Bridgnorth Brewing Company Apley Ale, Northgate Gold, Old Mo
Holdens Special, Golden Glow

Keeping it Local!

Here at Shrewsbury Folk Festival we love the town that hosts us every year and are always extremely grateful for the support we get from our local community.
We are determined to be as local as we can at the festival and where possible we use Shropshire companies - from our web masters to our loo provider!

We want to support as many local businesses as possible to pay back into the county and community that supports us - and it helps reduce our carbon footprint.
For the first time this year we have Shropshire's BoxFresh Organics on board as sponsors of our village stage. BoxFresh - whose staff are all keen folkies too - will be providing a onsite shop where people can buy organic fruit, veg, eggs, bacon, sausages, bread, cheese, butter, milk, tea, coffee and sugar and support a local business. They are also kindly giving our artists organic fruit to munch on.

BoxFresh are also planning festival boxes which campers can order in advance and pick up onsite through
www.boxfreshorganics.co.uk

Other local businesses involved in the festival include - The Cider House from Wootton near Bridgnorth which run the bars; Space Mobiles (toilets) from Much Wenlock; SP Holding from Telford (a sponsor and drainage services); BPD Print Solutions from Sutton Maddock (printing); Modern Fire Extinguisher Services from Atcham (hazard a guess what they do!); Pink Skips from Telford; Purple Hotel in Shrewsbury which puts up artists; Paul and Sabine at Virtual Shropshire (Much Wenlock) who do our website, filming and photography and Face Interactive from Ironbridge which designs our newsletters, adverts and flyers.

Our local paper the Shropshire Star has also sponsored the wristbands everyone will be wearing this year. The paper is always hugely supportive with its positive coverage throughout the year, as is BBC Radio Shropshire, which will be driving its Big Red Bus to the showground and offering free workshops on board!

We also run a free shuttle bus into Shrewsbury town centre on Saturday and Sunday as well have having music sessions and dancers perform in the town centre and local pubs.

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!