Come to England!

Subject: Come to England!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 06:50 PM

The tourist board seem to have got it's act together at last...

Check it out

No self-deprecating stuff as far as I can see, just a good idea of what goes on in my homeland.

Enjoy.

DtG

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 07:57 PM

Kewl!!!

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 21 Sep 06 - 09:23 PM

I typed in the "Ask Rosie" section "I would like suggestions for places to go where I could hear live authentic English folk music". The answer was "I don't know of anywhere. I would suggest you do a search".

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 04:37 AM

I asked ' Rosie ' is she knew anything about folk music, the answer I got, " yes I know the way to San Jose "

eric

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Northerner
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 04:40 AM

It didn't know anything about Morris dancing. And was completely mixed up about storytelling.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: skipy
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 04:50 AM

I just asked "is there a folk festival near wantage" I got:-
I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer to that question yet. Why not try one of the options below?
We can have some fun with & make our point, if we run this thread to 100? of folk related questions (U/K only please) we can submit it to them.
Get asking, Skipy.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: sian, west wales
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:00 AM

I searched on 'folk club' and was offered one jazz/folk club plus an interesting array of gay clubs. I had a bit better luck with, Where can I find "traditional music" (including the " " ).

It may be a matter of contacting the Tourist Board and finding out the process for including your events/clubs etc. Yes, they should be proactive but, failing that, tourism boards usually have a 'back door' for content providers. Just a matter of finding out how to get to it!

sian

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:02 AM

It doesn't matter what you ask, Rosie knows fuck all about anything vaguely related to folk music.

eric

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Paul Burke
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:09 AM

Hey don't knock it. I aksed "where is Derbyshire?", and got a map... of EXACTLY WHERE I LIVE!!! spooky....

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:29 AM

I asked "where can I get to hear traditional English Folk Song?" and, eventually, arrived at some fairly incomprehensible gibberish about Guisborough and Cleethorpes Folk Festivals plus some irrelevant results (one of which included the word 'hear'!).

Could do better?

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: skipy
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:46 AM

"morris dancing" = I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer to that question yet. Why not try one of the options below?
Skipy (playing)

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: GUEST,wordy
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 06:26 AM

A bit unfair all. A site like this can't cover all bases. A bit obsessive I feel.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Grab
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 07:00 AM

I have to agree with Wordy - your typical tourist is not coming umpty-tum hundred/thousand miles to sit in a folk session all day. (Apart from Dick and Susan Greenhaus, of course. ;-)

Checking what it gives back, there are *no* events listed. All listings are for locations/venues, not for events. So no Cambridge folk festival, no Notting Hill carnival, not even Glastonbury. Which explains why no folk sessions turn up - if they don't list Glastonbury, you're not going to get a listing for a dozen folkies in the back room of a pub.

As a resource for holiday-makers, I think it's a very good bit of kit.

Graham.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 08:27 AM

I may not be a typical tourist, but I have very often come thousands of miles to sit in a folk session all day. As a matter of fact, I'm planning on doing it again, in Portaferry!

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 08:37 AM

It's merely the fact that it says, " ask the England EXPERT " expert in what, nothing ?

eric

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 08:38 AM

I wonder if repeated inquiries about English folk music would lead to some information or links being included on the site?

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 09:46 AM

When I'm a tourist, I always search for traditional music of the place I'm visiting. I enjoy it, and it gets me away from the plastic-y stuff offered to most visitors.

Recently I took a boat tour on the Danube. At one point, management brought a pair of German singers/yodelers on board. All 200 of us had a blast.

My experience of tourist boards is that they don't really want to do any work. Yes, they will tell you about expensive services and easy-to-find attractions such as major museums. But ask anything individual, and they don't want to bother with you. Examples of "individual" stuff they wouldn't deal with for me:

bird-watching
trad music
early music
Northern lights (this was Canada.)

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 09:52 AM

Of course tourist boards have to concentrate on the attractions that most visitors want to see. But it wouldn't hurt to let them know that there ARE tourists out there who are interested in folk music, and make special trips to experience it.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: skipy
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:02 AM

Well, I'm going to ask a lot of questions over the next few weeks!
Skipy (new hobby)

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: kendall
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 11:07 AM

Ask the natives.Most of them speak English, of a sort.

Subject: RE: Come to England!
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 04:58 PM

I'm here, on my niece's computer, hope to be in Swinton on Monday night.
JohnB