It's over!!!

If you came to the festival, we hope you had a great time and that your journey home was safe.

We're sorting through photos and videos, it will take a few days but we'll post links up when we have them all arranged.

In the meantime, please leave comments here to let us know what you enjoyed, what the highlights were and where you think we can improve - we take everything on board and this helps us shape the festival for next year

For me, The Duhks village stage set, Nancy Kerr & James Fagan's harmony workshop, and the Demon Barber Roadshows concert with the children from Oxon were my three favourite moments.............over to you.

It's here

The caterers and traders started setting up last night, and barring a couple of stagglers they're all here.

The site set up is almost complete - the main stage is looking fantastic and has some new stage lights this year (wait 'til you see them!), and the rest of the site has all come together really well.

It rained yesterday, and there's a little mud around the site - some of this will go, but obviously in the high traffic areas there's a chance it might hang around. We're dealing with it with matting and wood chippings, and the forecast is good for the weekend, so hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

Doors open at 10am - see you sometime over the weekend. Hope you all have a great festival!

Marquees

Almost all the marquees are up, and tomorrow the stages should all be in place – in comparison to last year we’re a little further forward in the set-up.

There are a couple of other changes of note, 'The Big Shed' (the youth venue), is now a large tent with a wooden floor and although it's only moved a little, it's in a much nicer spot.

Our open-mic tent (Sabrina) has also moved into a more prominent position, and will encourage more people to stop and listen.

The main bar is now in a much larger marquee, and the Dr Sunshine children's tent is now a white marquee (rather than the multi-coloured marquee from last year, that made painting and generally working with colours an 'interesting' experience!)

Here are a few shots from around the site.

Artists' Reception

Thought you might like a little insight into what goes into the artists’ reception area, here are some of the numbers that make up some of hospitality we provide for artists at the festival....

3.6kg Ground Fresh Coffee (to make 96 litres)
400 assorted muffins
400 tea bags
60 herbal tea bags
240 cans of Coke
48 bottles of wine
9kg of sweets (3 x 3kg bags of pink and blue sweets from Liquorice Allsorts, Jelly babies and sugared almonds)
12 litres of orange juice
1000 milk stix
1000 sugar bags
1500 bio-compostable coffee cups
1500 wooden stirring sticks

and that doesn’t include artists’ riders!

Site preparation - Monday

Things have started to move along today and the larger marquees are all on site, I left the site at around 3pm today and the huge bar marquee was close to finished, and the specialised team of around 15 who come with the main marquee had started the lengthy process of putting it up…when I head down to the site tomorrow that should be finished…..

Over the next few days we start on the smaller marquees such as the ticket office, merchandise stall etc., with an aim to being finished by Thursday.

There will be lots of interesting photos to show over the next couple of days, this isn’t one of them……

the main marquee as it arrived.
a more exciting picture tomorrow is guaranteed!

Getting here

Our main website has full directions to the festival site, 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 postal address is

West Mid Showground
Berwick Road
Shrewsbury
SY1 2PF

Site set-up

Although setting the site up starts in earnest tomorrow when around 50 of our set up team arrive; a few have started work tonight – I’ve just called into the showground, and Josie’s Marquees are already setting up marquee 2 (the yellow and blue big top), and a few hardy souls are on site getting things ready for tomorrow.

It's no mean feat setting up a small town that can cater for the needs of 7000 people, and the stewards who help us set up the site both work hard and do a fantastic job. We’ll post photos of the set up as the week goes on, and hopefully we’ll capture the guys putting up the huge marquee as it’s a sight to behold!

…and just a quick mention of the weather, the forecast on Metcheck is getting better and better, and it’s now showing warm and dry days with the temperature up to around 22°c (here’s hoping!)

and so we come to the weather………..

Rather than torture ourselves alone by watching the weather forecast change on a daily basis, it only seems fair to invite everybody to join in.

It’s been all over the place for a few weeks, but is beginning to settle down, so hopefully the prediction over the next few days should be fairly accurate (Metcheck were spot on last year) – for 2008 they're suggesting we'll be dry apart from the odd shower on Saturday.

click the image for Metcheck's full festival forecast

Cider and bars

The second and final instalment in the bar series, to follow up on the beer and bars post (see 30th July)

The ciders that will be available at the festival are

Riches Traditional (sweet medium and dry)
Burrow Hill Traditional (sweet medium and dry), Cider brandy, Pomona, 3 different types of farm pressed apple juice
West Croft Cider Janet’s Jungle Juice
Hecks Traditional (medium), Kingston black single varietal, Perry
Broadoak Cider Co. traditional (sweet), Kingston black, Moonshine, Perry
Dunkertons Organic Cider Organic (medium sweet, medium ,dry)
Ross on Wye Cider Perry, traditional (medium)
Brook Farm Traditional (medium, sweet, dry), Perry
Westons Old Rosie, Stowford Press
Bulmers Traditional (medium and dry)
Inches Traditional (dry)
Thatchers Perry
Cider House Special

Plus two other unknown varieties that will be sourced when these are all collected from Somerset & Herefordshire!

Quite frankly, that’s a scary list – good luck if you try and get through them all!

Programmes

Our programmes for this years' festival have arrived, and we've shipped out copies to all those who ordered one when they booked their tickets – they should be with you over the next few days.

If you live in Shrewsbury (or are visiting the town before the festival), we’ve just delivered some programmes to the tourist information centre in the Music Hall, and these are available for you to drop by and buy one right now!

For everyone else, the programmes will be available from the ticket office or merchandise stall during the festival.

Facebook & MySpace Sites

This blog is a great way for us to keep you up to date with things that are happening over the course of the year, but there are two other internet groups that are dedicated to the Shrewsbury Folk Festival – they’re both open for all to join, and offer different ways for you to be involved with the festival.

Facebook – a group where those interested in the festival can come and join in discussions, post pictures of the festival etc. There are lots of pictures from last year, as well as members leaving comments…at the moment we have members offering lifts, someone needing a lift, and discussions about last years’ acts to highlight just three. It’s a friendly group so come on and join in here

MySpace – a site that has much in common with the blog, but with the addition of streaming audio, we currently have 4 full tracks from The Duhks, Oysterband, Eilen Jewell and John Wesley Harding for people to listen to. Have look the MySpace site here

We read and respond to all comments we receive either here on the blog or on the Facebook and MySpace sites; the more you let us know, the better we’ll be - so feel free to join in!

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!