Sidmouth Folk Week

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Sidmouth Folk Week (previously called Sidmouth International Festival), is a folk festival held every year in the first week of August in the town of Sidmouth, England. It offers a range of activities including concerts, ceilidhs, pub sessions, workshops, dance displays, and children's activities. The current patron is Martin Carthy MBE.

In 2008, Sidmouth Folk Week will take place between the 1st and 8th of August.[1] Details are available at http://www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk.

Contents

[edit] History

Sidmouth Festival was founded as a folk dance festival in 1955 by the English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), but gradually expanded to cover ceilidh dancing, music and song, as well as related folk crafts.[2] Over time, the scope also broadened to include performers from abroad, and the festival was renamed the Sidmouth International Folklore Festival.[3].

In 1986, the management of the festival was taken over by Mrs Casey Music, who retitled it Sidmouth International Festival and ran it for 18 years, during which time the festival grew to over 65,000 visitors a year[3]. In 1986, it become the birthplace of Shooting Roots, which provided a variety of workshops for young people and has played a key role in nurturing a network of young performers.[4]

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 East Devon District Council withdrawing funding[5] and in part by the 'rainy year' of 1997 which depleted much of the festival's financial reserves. For several months, the future of the festival appeared uncertain. Individuals and organisations began planning separate independent events for 2005, but by November 2004 a steering group had been set up to co-ordinate and publicise these events under the new name of Sidmouth Folk Week.[6] The 2005 event was smaller in scale, did not include the Arena Showground as on previous occasions, featured far fewer international performers and no season tickets were available. Nevertheless, it proved more popular than many had expected.

On 2005-11-07, Sidmouth Folk Week Limited was registered as a charity with the object of promoting "... an annual festival of folk arts and other associated events." [7]

The 2006 Sidmouth Folk Week included Blue Murder, Seth Lakeman and Roy Bailey. The 2007 event featured concerts by Show of Hands, Altan, Liz Ryder, Spookymen, Eliza Carthy, Nancy Kerr and Vin Garbutt.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Announcement at Sidmouth town council website
  2. ^ Schofield, Derek. History of the EFDSS.
  3. ^ a b Mrs Casey Music: Our history and what we're about
  4. ^ Shooting Roots webpage at Folk Arts England (as archived by the Internet Archive August 2004).
  5. ^ East Devon District Council - Minutes of an Executive Board meeting held on Wednesday, 29 September 2004(pdf)
  6. ^ "'Exciting' events planned for festival", Sidmouth Herald, 2004-11-11.
  7. ^ Extract from the Central Register of Charities maintained by the Charity Commission for England and Wales

[edit] Further reading

Schofield, Derek (2004) The First Week In August - Fifty Years Of The Sidmouth Festival. Sidmouth International Festival Ltd. ISBN 0-9547502-0-9