Would normally have put this info in the newsletter but they're having problems with this currently, so as I know some of you are going to Whitby I thought here would be as good a place as any.

Thursday and Friday 11.30 - 12.50 at the Coliseum is titled in the programme THE ORIGINS OF FOLKSONG. Before anyone gets overheated I have not taken up communicating with the dead, or been employing Dr Who. It's simply my OPINION on where the folk songs came from, and I'm quite happy to turn it into a debate. I will have with me the earliest extant printed copies of about 90% of all English trad folk songs, so if there's time you can come and sing us your favourite song and have a look at what the earliest known version was like. You'll be surprised how many we've traced back to the 17th century.

Thursday 1-3 at the Dolphin is a squeezaround for mainly anglos and melodeons. These have been very popular at previous festivals. For the uninitiated it works similar to a singaround. We go round the room and each player tells us something about their instrument(s) and then either plays a show-off piece, or leads the rest of us in a set of tunes. If it gets a bit heavy we throw in the odd set of easy tunes for all anyway.

Have a great festival!