Tenterden Folk Festival 2013
Thursday 3rd to Sunday 6th October
The 21st Tenterden Folk Festival includes nearly 60 events over four days from 7.00 p.m. on Thursday 3rd to midnight on Sunday 6th October.
Venues:
Festival venues range from the intimate to the more formal and include the unusual. All the venues are within easy walking distance of each other and include The Assembly Rooms upstairs in the Town Hall, The Moulton Hall and Evans Bar in the Tenterden Club and the adjoining St Mildred’s Church Hall. We also use the bars of four popular town centre pubs, the Vine, White Lion, William Caxton and Woolpack, for music sessions and sing-a-rounds. Small acoustic concerts take place in the Saddlery at side of the White Lion and band showcases and sing-rounds in the Barn at the back of the Woolpack. All the pubs will be stocking up with real ales and providing festival food. More events will be hosted in the intimate setting of The Indulgence Cake and Coffee House. Outdoor events will be found on the greens and forecourts in the High Street and in the Marquee on the Recreation Ground as well as at the Railway Station and there will even be song and music on the steam trains.
Events:
Many events are free so you can visit the Showcase Stage, Dance stage, craft stalls, music stalls and street stalls, etc. at your leisure. While doing this you will encounter hundreds of Morris dancers, Appalachian dancers, Slovakian dancers and street entertainers up and down the High Street and around the town centre. You can also pop in the pubs where you will find folk singers and musicians in the bars and, if the weather is good, in the gardens. On Saturday the High Street (A28) will be closed for around an hour from 3.00 p.m. for the Festival procession which starts near the War Memorial and finishes at the Marquee on The Recreation Ground. Please put some money in our collecting buckets to help fund the free events.
If you buy a Full Weekend ticket or single event tickets you can go to various small acoustic or larger concerts, the Friday evening Barn Dance with the Sussex Pistols, the very popular Cinque Ports sea songs and shanties session, workshops and other events. Martin Young will be launching his new CD at the Festival on Friday. At the workshops you can learn more about Birds in Folk song with Derek Gifford; The Mill and the related folklore and songs with Pete Castle; learn about Spanish folk music with Na Mara; work on playing tunes for dancing and in sessions with Gavin & Julie Atkin; improve concertina part playing with Spare Parts, playing the English concertina with Dick Miles; learn a Slovakian folk dance with Morena Slovak Dancers; and many other topics.
Guests:
This year’s guests are drawn mainly from the English tradition and range from Pete Coe, often described as a ‘one man festival’, to the West Country based a cappella group The Claque, via local folk rock group Green Diesel. Guests also include Graeme Knights, best known for his loud voice and his knowledge of shanties but equally at home with quieter work songs, plus his daughter Heather, a University student in Canterbury who has a much more genteel approach and a beautiful voice. For the full guest list see
www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk
For more details the full programme will be available at the beginning of September. Pick one up in Tenterden or Ashford or send an A5 sae to get a free copy.
PRESS NOTE: We can provide photo’s of most guests for publication if requested. Just email
info@tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk
Barn dance in Ashford’s music and arts venue:
If you fancy getting your dancing shoes on before the festival do not forget that St Mary’s Arts Trust are holding their second Revelation St Mary’s Barn Dance, with The Abbey Capers Band in Ashford on Friday 13th September. For more details and to buy tickets go to
www.revelationstmarys.co.uk
Alan Castle
Festival Director
Pete Coe, a one man festival!
The Claque from the West Country
Local folk rock band Green Diesel in The Woolpack Barn in 2012
