Folk Association of South Hants

 

Festivals

FASH seeks to encourage greater participation in folk activities and one way that this happens is through the many festivals around the country. Festivals are amazing; they usually have a diverse range of people, of all ages, enjoying themselves making music, singing, listening or dancing.

We have several festivals in and around our area; for next year, the dates we have are...

  • Purbeck Valley Folk Festival 15th - 18th August 2024. 'Earlybird' tickets no longer available but still cheaper to book on-line rather than at the gate. Artists listings can be seen on-line but no obvious detailed programme.

  • Lyme Folk Weekend 23rd - 26th August. Lyme Regis Folk Festival. Concerts are ticketed but lots of the festival is free. No details yet of the free events.

  • Towersey Festival 23rd - 26th August 2024. Only 'Tier 3' tickets now available. Note that this will be the last Towersey Festival.

  • Wallingford Bunkfest 30th August - 1st September 2024. Camping tickets available. 2024 information on guests etc. now on website.

  • Swanage Folk Festival 6th - 8th September 2024. Some free events. Weekend tickets for the full festival now sold out; afternoon concert, evening concert and ceilidh tickets still available.

  • Southdowns Folk Festival (Bognor Regis) 20th - 22nd September 2024. Concert details on a small poster on the home and ticket purchase pages of the website.

  • Malmesbury Folk and Roots Festival 21st September 2024. Afternoon festival on one day only. More information and tickets via the website.

The list is far from exhaustive and there are many other festivals further afield. Most of the Folk Festivals in the UK are listed here, and you might find one or two more on the Armandaleg website, here.

For still more. including folk festivals outside the UK mainland, have a look at The Living Tradition website. Sadly, EFDSS, who used to have a comprehensive list, no longer seem to be listing Folk Festivals.

 

All these festivals vary. Some are all about Morris dance displays with perhaps a ceilidh one evening, others are all about dancing, or listening to bands on stages. There are also festivals which have a wide range of workshops, dances, concerts and displays. Some festivals are in towns with hotel accommodation, others have camping.

Because there is such a wide variety, we have been encouraging folk to write a description of any festival they enjoy. We have published a number of these articles in Solent Waves (see here for more details on this monthly newsletter) and have included them for anyone to see. Please note that each is the view of the person involved, rather than FASH or its officers, or the festival organisers, but since they are all, to varying degrees, complimentary, this hardly matters. They vary in how old they are, but as the festivals tend to follow a similar pattern from year to year, they will still be reasonably accurate.

Eastbourne International Folkdance Festival (replaced by May Heydays - see above) 2013 review - festival link

Wickham Festival 2012 review - festival link

Warwick Folk Festival 2009 review, 2014 review - festival link

Upton Folk Festival 2009 review - festival link

Chippenham Folk Festival 2008 review, 2016 review - festival link

Towersey Village Festival 2007 review - festival link

The Village Pump Folk Festival 2014 review - festival link

If anyone cares to write about any other festivals, then it would be great. Please send them to the Solent Waves Editor or see our contacts page