Imminent demise of Whitby festival

Subject: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From:
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:08 PM

No, not that one, and not "Little Whitby" either!

But unless something significant is done immediately, the WHITBY COMPETITIVE FOLK DANCE FESTIVAL will not run next year. Some of you will know about this competition, and many won't. It has been in existence since 1922! This year's will have been its last unless it gets an immediate injection of interest.

The festival runs in Whitby, North Yorkshire, UK, on the weekend a fortnight before Easter. It is organised by the local EFDSS branch - but don't let that put you off! For years the prime movers have been May Beeforth and (the late) Peter Glover - both well known to Folk Weekers. The festival has been in a slow, if fitful, decline over the last 10 years or so, with attendances and entries falling off year by year. Now the committee members have decided they're all too old to continue.

BUT!! There are a number of us, both local and further afield, who have been regular attenders at the festival and don't want to see it die, at least not without a fight. We are exploring several options at the moment, but the two most important factors are 1) attendance and 2) costs. Of course if attendance is sorted out, the costs problem can be much more easily resolved.

This is where you come in! The first thing that needs to happen is for people throughout the Folk scene to become aware of the existence of the festival; the second is for them to commit to attending it. The local group has never had the resources for blanket advertisement coverage, so most people in the Folk scene have no knowledge of the festival. Please tell everyone you know in a dance team or who sings that this competition could still run in 2002 if we get enough support.

A lot of people, understandably, are opposed on principle to competitive Folk activities, but of course there is a strong history of competition in several of the dance traditions. You can view it very much in the way the International Eisteddfod at Llangollen is seen. Whitby CFD Festival was once clearly important to dancers up and down the country, and a lot of "names" in the dance world have been involved over the years. Ivor Allsop devotes a whole page of his book to the importance of WCFDF.

What does the festival entail? Competitions in a whole range of categories: playground games (still supported by the local primaries in this day and age), Country Dancing (which seems mostly to mean Playford), Kentucky Running Set, Cotswold and Border Morris, Longsword, Rapper, North West and Garland, and Folk Singing. There are entry classes for all ages, and recently I was able to persuade them to allow (!!) both female sword dancing and a demonstration of step clog. This is not to say that any future festival would follow exactly the same format - I believe further changes are long overdue. The festival traditionally concludes with a "Barn Dance" - we should turn that into a ceilidh.

This is one of the last two remaining competitive festivals in England. So help, eh? Catters who're in town for Folk Week will find me round & about, tho' I don't have a t-shirt! You can't miss me, anyway, & I'll probably be Scratching at some point. Otherwise post to this thread or e-mail me. If you're involved in EFDSS, you could help giving them a kick up the jacksie for some help from them. Ta for reading this diatribe! Ian

Subject: RE: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 02:35 AM

It has run its course...and no doubt, it has been a "noble one" but, in the Darwinian Drama of the comercial market place.....

It is time for it to DIE!!!

Greave not....its demise is greated in its spirit....with raves, after-hours, and burning-man events.

Subject: RE: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From: Ringer
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 04:23 AM

Ian, I support your efforts wholeheartedly, but let me tell you why I, folk-dancer that I am, won't be coming. My dancing these days is limited to the regular session held above a pub twice a month, plus a few Saturday-evening dances. The regular group is only about a dozen, and frequently we dance 3-couple dances all evening because there are only 6 or 7 of us (on one memorable (!) occasion, it was Parson's Farewell and Hey Boys, Up Go We all evening because we were only 4). And I, who shall not see 50 again, am the youngest of the group, by a long way. Old-age, arthritis, and sheer lack of numbers is why Spire Folk Dance Club won't be putting in an appearance. And my experiences at the Saturday-evening dances suggest that Spire is not unique nor even unusual.

I see a few young people at music sessions, but almost none at dances. It grieves me to say it, but maybe Gargoyle is right.

Subject: RE: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From: Les from Hull
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 03:41 PM

Competitive folk dancing has not been the same since the days of the Cloggies in Private Eye. Perhaps people want to dance and not to compete, so perhaps if the emphasis was changed...

Subject: RE: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From: Paul from Hull
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 04:12 PM

Well, either that Les, or Competetive Dancing under fire, as in the origin of the 'Cloggies'!

"18 pints, Doris" (- from a Cartoon that used to hang on Les' wall) *G*

Hmmmm...I suppose it loses something in the translation....AND you had to be there....

Subject: RE: Imminent demise of Whitby festival
From: GUEST,PCW
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 04:37 PM

In decline for 10 years? As its not even been put in EFDSS's own free festival listing I'm not surprised.