As many of you are aware there has been a threat of closure hanging over the KFFC venue, The Black Horse, Kirkby Fleetham, for a number of weeks. The pub will now close on June 11th.
Are we down hearted?…..well a bit, as it has been an excellent venue for the Folk Club and February's Winter Warmer Weekend.
Will it stop the music?.....of course not. We are changing the June 21st afternoon from a "farewell/ save our pub" afternoon to a "Welcome to the Village Hall" party. We have run gigs in Kirkby Fleetham Village Hall before and it is also a fine venue. It means that the barbecue will be easier to manage as it has its' own kitchen and grounds.
The afternoon concert and singaround (1pm- 8pm, free) will now be run in a marquee on the Village Green, next to the Village Hall (Tai Chi until 4pm in the hall, hence the marquee) and the evening concert with John Conolly & The Doghouse Roses will be actually in the Village Hall (8-11.30pm, £5).
The ancient rite of "Marquee Raising" will take place at midday…it would be great if a few strapping lads (and lassies) could turn up for this. Please let me know if you can.
As we only found out today that the pub is shutting this week we do not have enough time to apply for a drinks licence, therefore please feel free to bring your own. I will be buying quite a lot of beer and wine and if you would like to share in the cost of this (and drink some of it, of course!), just bring some money on the night. For those of you coming for the afternoon, the village shop also sells beer and wine.
If you are bringing your van/ caravan, I have negotiated to allow you to continue to use the pub car park, but there will be no over night facilities, so please bring your own! If you were expecting accommodation at the pub, I am busy trying to find you somewhere to stay with some of the locals, bear with me, but be confident!
….and the future?
Club funds are healthy and attendances have generally been very good, as long as this continues we will try and continue! The current plan is to shut the club for July & August and re-launch in The Village Hall (or The Black Horse if a sympathetic tenant takes over) on September 20th with The Grand Re-opening Party with Roger Davies as the main act and Wendy Arrowsmith with Blind Summat as the support, £5. (A note to the acts booked for July & August, if I haven't already spoken to you, I will re-book you for a slot at some point next year assuming the club survives the transition OK). We will then continue with the planned acts on the planned evenings; October 18th 2008: Dave Gibb + Sue & Dave Swales + Pearson Clan. December 13th 2008: Vicki Swan and Johnny Dyer + Phil Drane January 24th 2009: Brother Crow + Kathryn Davidson & Dan Walsh.
At this stage I will have to post a major warning re the Big Birthday Bash Weekend in November and Winter Warmer Weekend II in February as the Village Hall is not a suitable venue for these types of events. I will make a decision about these by the beginning of August and keep everyone informed. If we can use the pub or find a suitable alternative venue I will go ahead. If not, I will salvage what I can from the line-ups and run either a club night or a 1 day special event…..unless anyone has any other bright ideas?
We will definitely be looking to run weekend events sometime, somewhere and obviously look to re-book as many of the excellent acts that we have lined up as possible.
So, we'll see some of you on the 21st and hopefully everyone else at some point in the future.