Sidmouth Folk Week
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Sidmouth festival , founded in 1955 is one of the best-known and longest-running folk festivals in the United Kingdom. It offers a range of activities including concerts, ceilidhs, informal sessions and jams, workshops, dance displays, children's activities and more. It originally began as a morris festival, with links to the English Folk Dance and Song Society, but expanded to cover ceilidh dancing, music and song, as well as related folk crafts. In recent years, it has become known for offering an impressive array of international acts, as well as providing a home for both older and younger age groups. Under the management of Mrs Casey Music, it was the birthplace of Shooting Roots, which has produced a network of young performers. In 2004, the organisers Mrs Casey Music announced that they would no longer be running the festival due to funding issues, brought on in part by the local council withdrawing funding, and in part by the 'rainy year' of 1997 with ate into much of the festival's emergency money. The 51st Sidmouth Folk Week in 2005 (originally not going to happen, and pulled together at the last minute) proved more popular than many had expected. It did not feature the Arena Showground, and was run more as a collection of smaller festivals and events than one large festival. Now known as Sidmouth Folk Week, the 2006 event included Blue Murder, Seth Lakeman, Roy Bailey.
