National Folk Festival - Scotland

Subject: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 02:45 PM

Anyobe resident in the UK or traveling to Britain this coming summer will be please to read what follows...

The National Folk Festival Scotland

The National Folk Festival, Scotland, is a new festival starting in August 2002. Although a new festival, there is plenty of history. The organisers were involved in creating The Girvan Traditional Folk Festival in 1974 running it for the first 21 years. The Girvan Festival was a relatively small festival, but it earned a reputation far greater than its physical size with its combination of formal and informal events.

The National Folk Festival, Scotland, is twinned with The National Folk Festival in England. Both events will have their own style, but share a common ethos. Both will be celebrations of Traditional music.

The Dates

The Festival Weekend starts on Friday evening, 9th August, and ends (officially) on Sunday evening, 11th August.

For early birds, there is an opening concert in Kilmarnock on Saturday 3rd August, some events during the week, then the 'festival weekend from 9th - 11th August. This gives you options to build the festival into a nine-day holiday with traditional music. You can combine the festival with Common Ground - widening your options for what we expect to be a wonderful week in the summer.

You can combine Common Ground and The National Folk Festival, using the same accommodation at Auchincruive, from 3rd to 11th August.

The Venues

The choice of venue has an enormous influence on any event. Two main factors will have a moulding influence on The National Folk Festival Scotland; it will be a campus based festival with some wonderful historic performance spaces.

The festival weekend will take place at The Scottish Agricultural College at Auchincruive, near Ayr. This is a rural campus - you can walk for a couple of miles along the river Ayr yet still be in the grounds of the college - with good facilities and reasonably priced accommodation. Camping facilities will be available for the duration of the festival. The campus approach will allow us to cater for families and help build the sense of community that exists in all the best festivals.

The hub of the festival will be Oswald Hall, a magnificent Robert Adam designed mansion house that was gifted by the Oswald family to establish the College in Ayrshire. The music room in Oswald Hall will be home to many of our concerts. It is a magnificent room, holding fewer than 150 people, ideally suited to acoustic music. In 1996 we had a great concert there with The Boys of the Lough playing acoustically.

There are other rooms within Oswald Hall that will allow a range of activities to take place at the same time. With walls that are a metre thick, sound spillage shouldn't be too much of a problem!

There are sporting facilities on site including tennis courts and the usual facilities including a shop, cafeteria and a bar.

Before the festival weekend, there will be a number of 'National Folk Festival' events throughout the area. On Saturday 3rd August we are having the opening concert for The National Festival in The Palace Theatre in Kilmarnock. This is a week before 'the festival weekend'. Between that opening concert and the 'the festival weekend' there will be other concerts in some 'splendid venues' including Dean Castle, Kilmarnock; the Scottish Maritime Museum and in Culzean Castle - regarded as 'the jewel in the crown' of National Trust properties in Scotland.

Featured Artists

Running alongside The National is a summer school called 'Common Ground'. The two events are distinct but in some respects Common Ground will be the 'artistic engine' for some parts of The National Festival. The musical focus of The National will be very much on the tradition, and being in Scotland, the musical traditions of Scotland will be well represented. Our guest list is still being developed; we expect to announce a reasonably complete list by Easter, just after The National Folk Festival in England. Here is a provisional guest list, we expect quite a few more additions and some yet to be confirmed: Norman Kennedy, Bob Blair, Alison McMorland, Geordie McIntyre, Tom Smith & Wattie Lees, Heather Heywood, Blazin' Fiddles, Donal Maguire, Jerry Epstein, Si Kahn, Jock Tamsons Bairns, Walt Michael & Company, Bob Zentz & Rick Lee, Earl White & Matt Gordon, Lea Gilmore, Maggie McInnes, Roy Harris, Margaret Bennett, Elizabeth Stewart of Fetterangus, Sheila Kay Adams, Pete Clark and more ..

Workshops & Masterclasses

Common Ground on the Hill, a Summer School for the Traditional Arts, will be running in the week leading up to The National Folk Festival and will offer plenty of opportunities for people to learn. During the National Festival we will be having some workshop type events, but the main emphasis of the Festival will be on performance and participation.

Tickets

We will be offering 'Season' and 'Weekend' tickets that will give entry to all events - including the 'Late Night Extra's'. Because many of the venues will be small, Season and Weekend tickets will be on sale will be on sale before individual tickets. We expect individual tickets to be available for most of the events.

We will try our best to make all the events affordable and will have special rate family tickets. Volunteering opportunities should also help make participation affordable.

We have yet to finalise our ticket price but anticipate a full weekend ticket price of £40. We will give good value for money!

Concession prices and volunteers: Concessions will be available for people who find it difficult to meet these costs. Please apply as early as possible for this assistance. There will also be opportunities for people to trade part of their costs in return for stewarding or other similar duties. Again, please apply early.

Accommodation: is available within the college campus in single or twin rooms. Bed & Breakfast for three nights will cost about £40. This accommodation will be limited with priority given to festival ticket holders who book before the end of May.

The accommodation is in student rooms, is clean, comfortable but not luxurious. If you fancy a little more luxury there is a range of accommodation within easy driving distance right up to Five Star hotels with International Golf Courses on their doorstep.

Meals can be purchased as required at the college.

Children under may share a room with parents using camp beds or airbeds.

Camping will be available within the campus and caravans will be catered for. These facilities are intended for festival attendees only. Not everybody in any group needs to hold a weekend ticket, but we expect the main purpose of them camping is to attend the festival.

Volunteers

The organisers see their job as creating the framework within which all the participants are able to create a special event. The job of the main organising committee is only the first step towards a successful event and volunteers will be needed to ensure that things run smoothly. Ideally you will have some relevant experience, such as organising or helping out at your local folk club, but the main qualification will be an interest in the music and a friendly, flexible, can-do attitude. We welcome enquiries from individuals, festivals, clubs etc., who are interested in getting involved in the festival.

Travel & Transport

By Air: Auchincruive is close to Prestwick Airport which is well served by Ryanair with cheap flights from London, Dublin and several European destinations. Glasgow Airport is about 25 miles away offering flights from various destinations. For travel from the East Coast of the USA, we have found Icelandair flights to Glasgow from via Iceland to be a good route. There are other connections via London or Ireland.

By road; from England we are about a two-hour drive from Carlisle, Newcastle area about four hours, Manchester four to five hours. From Ireland the ferry crossing to Troon is about six miles and from Stranraer about an hour up the coast along the A77.

By rail: The railway station in Ayr is about three miles away. This is on the line South from Glasgow towards Ayr and Northwards from Stranraer through Ayr towards Glasgow. There are plenty of special offers for travel to Glasgow. Glasgow to Ayr costs about £4.

Mailing List

Keep in touch with developments by joining our mailing list. We will do our best to respond to enquiries on an individual basis so that you can plan your attendance. Feedback is vital to us at this stage in the development of the Festival - we value your opinions, ideas and offers of support.

Friends of the Festival

Our aim is to create an event that will continue to develop over a number of years. We will use all of our experience to get the first event off the ground but we realise that we will need the enthusiasm of many people if the festival is to reach its potential. That can't be done without friends and supporters.

Partnerships: Our strategy for development is based on partnerships with likeminded people and organisations. Our first partnership is with 'The National Folk Music Festival' in England. This has been running for 35 years and is also based at an Agricultural College, at Sutton Bonnington, near Loughborough. This 'twinning' is much more than just a name association; we share a similar musical ethos. Further partnerships may well develop.

Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsorships to allow us to develop the various opportunities that The National Folk Festival offers. If you can help to introduce us to a potential sponsor, please contact us.

Donations: We also welcome donations from individuals with an interest in traditional music. There donations - however small - can be really valuable; first of all because they are encouraging and secondly because commercial sponsorship comes at a price.

The Personal Touch

We are eager to make your visit to The National Folk festival - and to Scotland if you don't live here - as enjoyable as possible. Contact us early, and sign up early, and we will try our best to help you make the most of your visit. Keep in touch via our website, but feel free to write to us, phone us or request us to contact you.

Tell your friends!

Please forward this email to anybody you think may be interested - but please add a friendly covering note to them so that we don't get the blame for pestering them!

We look forward to seeing you in August.

Website addresses:

The National Folk Festival: http://www.thenationalfolkfestival.co.uk
Common Ground, Scotland: http://www.thetraditionbearers.com/commonground

Email Addresses:

Common Ground, Scotland: [e-mail]
The National Folk Festival: [e-mail]

Telephone [phone] (International [phone])

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 02:54 PM

Good news indeed, but whatever possessed the organizers to host the festival out in the badlands ? Why couldn't they have staged it somewhere sensible, and central? Pitlochry, for instance.

Murray

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 08 Mar 02 - 03:22 PM

This sounds really good, but it is a bit too far away for me, Why don't they have it in Hull instead!

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 01:53 AM

Pitlochry? Hull? --why not John o' Groats or Lands End?? What the heck's wrong with running a National Fest. in the Burns Country? Gaun yersels ye Ayrshire yoemen----make it roll!

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: GUEST,Peter from Essex
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 06:31 AM

Won't the title cause some confusion with the existing National Folk Festival

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: 8_Pints
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 07:56 AM

Like Peter from Essex, I thought the National Festival was the one held in Loughborough Agricultural College.

Is this the one you were referring to Peter?

I understood this year's festival is being held in April.

Bob vG

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: Liam's Brother
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 08:04 AM

It is the NATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL - SCOTLAND.

The festivals in England and Scotland will be twinned.

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From:
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 12:12 PM

Someone posted more information here: Scottish National Folk Festival

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 09 Mar 02 - 03:56 PM

John- Your comments point out a major difference between Yanks and Brits: To an Englishman, 100 miles a a long distance; to an American, 100 years is a long time.

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: GUEST,CraigS
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 04:25 PM

Out in the Badlands? A couple of miles away is Prestwick airport, AKA Glasgow Prestwick, with regular flights from London Stanstead and other places,and there are good rail connections from Glasgow for airport purposes. Driving there is a drag, but the roads are motorway standard apart from the last twenty or thirty miles, depending on your choice of route. Incidentally, Prestwick airport is the only part of GB to be stood on by Elvis Presley, and is regarded as hallowed ground by Elvis fans as a consequence.

Subject: RE: National Folk Festival - Scotland
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Mar 02 - 08:08 PM

It unfortunately clashes with the end of Sidmouth Festival: I know they're 400 miles apart, but have attende Sidmouth for the last xxxxxx years, so even though the Scotland one will be nearer home, I shall be in Sidmouth as usual. Tattie B