Rochester Sweeps' Festival

Subject: Rochester Sweeps Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 29 Apr 01 - 06:29 PM

The coming weekend.

Rochester, Kent, England.

Do a search for Rochester + Sweeps to find more info.

SIngarounds have suffered here too.

Also the council has cancelled two other local festivals, the Norman Rochesteer festival and the Strood Steam Festival.

Subject: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 11:22 AM

I set out below the text of a letter I wrote recently to the festival director.

I'll post his reply after I've scanned it, and so on.

Folk? He doesn't want it!

31st May 2001 G. Newton Esq., Festival Director, Sweeps' Festival Medway Council, Civic Centre, Strood, Rochester, Kent, ME2 4AU

Dear Sir

My wife and I have been followers of the Sweeps' festival for many years. Our enjoyment of the festival is diminishing, and we believe that the overall popularity of the festival is diminishing as a result of the recent change in direction. We believe that these changes unless reversed will lead to the death of the festival.

When we first discovered the festival it was possible, at any time of the day, to walk into any of the pubs in the High Street, and find informal singing or playing of music, largely by amateurs, unamplified. Those not participating would largely be listening. The sides who were not dancing, and the public at large would be enjoying themselves in this ambience. Even late at night there was no reason to fear street fighting or intimidation.

All this has changed. The singarounds have been ghettoised. Pubs have electric bands provided via the festival with no real choice in the matter. The electric bands are playing American, pop, and country music. Folk musicians are not welcome to play. When the booked bands finish, the jukeboxes go on. Those who might wish to listen to folk music have to contend with wall to wall young drunks (attracted by the changed choice of music). Purses are stolen and the streets later at night, particularly at the River Medway end of the town, are becoming dangerous.

This year booked bands and sides were failing to turn up – no doubt because their enjoyment of the festival had been diminished. The crowds, too, were noticeably down this year. The musicians who used to attend the "fringe" now almost wholly stay away. Soon no-one will go there at all.

This all relates directly to the choice of music. If the festival is to survive it is imperative to return to acoustic, participative, and less formalised music in the pubs. This may involve the council in some loss of control, but that would not necessarily be any bad thing.

We have written to you twice before to point out the dangers of the centrally controlled music policy adopted, and have not even had the courtesy of acknowledgments. We should be grateful to know that our views are at least noted.

Yours faithfully

Richard McD. Bridge

CC "What's On Folks".

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: bobby's girl
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 06:17 PM

Sorry to hear that the festival is not what it was - we haven't been as a side for about 4 years now, but when we did go it was great. To echo the point about the streets being safe, we had an impromptu ceilidh in the main street after closing time one night with a scratch band of any musician who happened to walk by with an instrument, and any caller who felt the urge (or was sufficiently sober to be coherent!)It doesn't sound as if that would be feasible these days which is a shame - it's one of my fondest memories of the place.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: vindelis
Date: 07 Aug 01 - 07:13 PM

The ceilidh in the street, late at night, was certainly something to behold. I don't suppose we would be able to dance three-man jigs in the pubs these days.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: manitas_at_work
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 07:49 AM

Oh, I don't know. East Saxon Sword managed to dance in a few pubs this year, we just had to ask permission and get the muzak switched off or dance while the band was on a break.

It seems to me that the High St is now a 'circuit' and rather than try to take over the town the festival has opted to put on folk(ish)-based bands that are likely to appeal to non-folkie youngsters. I have been told that the Rochester area is one of the liveliest in the country in terms of live bands. So what are the organisers to do? Ban all folkies from the town centre for the weekend or just put on music that won't appeal to them thus leaving the pubs (relatively) empty and losing the publicans' good will?

I think the best thing to do is to research the pubs in advance of next year and find one (perhaps out of the town centre) that would be receptive to having a singer's session and then ask Gordon to publicise it.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Bonzo
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:43 PM

Ceilidh in the street? you'd never catch me do anything as daft as that!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: vindelis
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:59 PM

Well it was dark!

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: GUEST,PCW
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 04:45 PM

Never been to the Sweeps but I can't see what's daft about a ceilidh in the street. At least it doens't involve bells and hankies

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 06:36 PM

Or you could just come over to Hastings and help carry a giant up a sodding great hill......

Lots of music things going on all round the old town, great beer and usually a bloody good ceilidh indoors in the dry!

LTS

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:12 PM

I really must do the letter I was replying to and sort of work backwards.

Believe me, this year the "folk" element was largely gone. I talked to a local(ish) magazine organiser (no, not Julia) today and he agreed - it's less "folk" than it was.

Off to play with the Scanner.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:14 PM

I mean post the letter of reply I got (broadly, sod off what we do makes money) and take it forwards.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 01:27 PM

Here's Gordon Newton's position. He's the festival director. Most of the paragraphing and punctuation is his!

I'll post my reply to him tomorrow with luck.

Date: 10/7/2001.

Dear Richard, Rochester Sweeps Festival 2001.

Thank you for your letter dated 31 May 200 1, which was passed on to me by Sue Jaycock, the Events Officer at Medway Council responsible for co-ordinating the 2001 Sweeps Festival. I must apologise for not replying to it earlier due mainly to business pressures and an extended business visit to the Middle and Far East from which 1 returned last Thursday.

I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy the Festival this year. As a matter of policy, we do take views of a wide variety of the public in to consideration when we plan the event each year. It is true that we do ring changes into each event and have steadily increased the profile of the event into one of the top folk festivals in Europe by doing so. When selecting performers to appear at the festival, there is a wealth of talent to choose from. I think it is fair to say that we have blended local talent with top line performers to achieve a good balance. It is a fact that audiences are much more sophisticated than those of 20 years ago. Many folk performers have become more professional in their presentation and have therefore much more appeal to a wider audience with folk interests. At 'Sweeps' we have found that to grow the event to its present size we have had to cater for all groups of musical interest including those who are multi-cultural.

In doing so, the Festival has changed from what it was by natural progression and has kept up with the changing times.

For instance, last year we packed Rochester Cathedral with the Classical Chart topping group, the Medieval Baebes supported by John Kirkpatrick. What a wonderful concert! It did not appeal to everyone but we managed to bridge the Folk Classical music gap.

We had visitors who would not normally attend a folk festival and were introduced to a different type of music. This year, we centred our evening Folk Clubs at the Fort Pitt Grammar School and featured 'Cockersdale' and the winner of BBC Radio 2 best up and coming folk performer, Bill Jones, plus a host of other performers.

Our Boley Hill stage was again well used and featured the West End cast of 'Buddy'. Who can deny the influence of Buddy Holly on the music world? What a superb 'live' performance by very talented musicians?

In addition to the above, we also featured one of the most traditional of English Ceilidh Bands, 'The Old Swan Band' at the school who provided a superb performance under the direction of caller Dave Hunt. At the Corn Exchange we featured E2K who are appearing at most of the major festivals in Britain this year.

I believe our choice of performers is very much ahead of most folk festivals in the UK. We have always prided ourselves on selecting a good mixture of established folk performers and new talent, blending them together to provide a balanced mix. There is provision at the festival for every type of audience for instance; The traditional type of folk sing-around is hosted by Bob and Kathy Drage at various un-amplified venues including the Auditorium of the Visitor information Centre, The Gordon Hotel with John Matthews and the Great Expectations Bar with John Smedley all of whom are well known throughout Kent for their high standard sing-arounds. Morris Musicians play un-amplified music at Ye Arrow and The Man of Kent which is where a large number gather to partake of real ale and meet to exchange tunes.

As Festival Director, I took a policy decision to reduce the number of Morris Dance teams invited to perform at the festival and have concentrated on quality not quantity. We also do not encourage the 'busking fringe' musicians who used to play on the streets and referred to in your letter, as they used to 'gate crash' venues which had been assigned to dance teams and became abusive when they were asked politely to move on. Only teams who are personally known to me and I have seen their performances are invited to participate in the Sweeps Festival. You must also remember that Morris teams who visit Sweeps come because they want to and are not 'booked' or paid to appear. If they cannot attend at the last minute there is usually a very good reason. The only 'booked' band to my knowledge, which failed to appear were Pavilion Noir from France who were affected by illness.

You may be interested to know that a 'straw pole' of the traders in Rochester, confirmed that their sales were up which would indicate to me that the number of visitors to the festival had increased as it has steadily since I started the event in 1980. Visitors come to the festival from all parts of the world and from throughout the UK. It never ceases to amaze me that they come to take part in what I started as a 'hobby' all those years ago and what is now acknowledged to be the largest Morris dance festival in the world and the largest traditional May Festival in Europe!

It is very easy to look at the negative aspects of what has become a very large event, but, Doug Hudson the song director, Medway Council and myself do concentrate on what appeals to the wider audience but yet provide entertainment for minority interest groups at the same type. I believe that the structure of the present day festival does just that which is why we believe that 'Sweeps' is known throughout Britain as 'The Friendly Festival'. One point worth mentioning is that most of the entertainment at the Festival is provided free of charge. In conclusion, I have enclosed an article from the last edition of Folk-in-Kent, which you may not have seen. I hope that you find an alternative view of the festival of interest. Rest assured, however, that your views will be taken into consideration when we plan the 2002 Festival as you have highlighted some points of concern which will be examined. 1 have enclosed one of our free distribution programmes for the 2001 Sweeps Festival for your reference. Assuring you of my closest attention at all times, I remain,………….

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Aug 01 - 06:11 AM

Here's my reply to GOrdon Newton

Dear Mr Newton

Sweeps

Thank you for your letter of the 10th July which I have considered and discussed with others. These include some who have been semi-professional folk singers for over 30 years. It will not have escaped you that I have written to the council on this topic most years over about the last 5 years. I enclose a copy of last year's letter. Computer problems prevent me from enclosing the others at the moment. But as you will see I thought turnout was down last year and I am sure it was more down this year.

When I started I was, I think, largely a lone voice. But now you have been sent a copy of the current "What's On Folks" (which is, I think, more widely read among Kent folk musicians than "Folk In Kent" which in turn is more focussed upon folk dancers). You will see that the lack of folk music in the streets and in the pubs – the issue I have been addressing all these years – is now a matter of concern for others as well.

I am both disappointed and to an extent offended by your letter, and the worst part of it is that you actively wish to discourage what you call "the busking fringe". These were folk musicians. You would correctly have inferred that I am one, but not, I hope, an abusive one. A close second was your suggestion that the Sweeps festival is now intended to embrace "all groups of musical interest". Surely you can see that this removes the core of the identity of any form of folk festival. There is no need to be ashamed of the English traditional music any more than the English traditional dance, and there is no need to replace it with other traditions or modern music. It is not a measure of the success of a folk festival simply to tally traders' sales – which in any event are as much influenced by the prevailing economic clime as the attendances at a festival, and it is no defence to a charge that the Sweeps' festival has lost its identity to say that it is more profitable in its new guise.

You also largely addressed issues other than those I raised.

I did not write to you about the concert acts at all, yet much of your reply concentrates on these. I wrote about the loss of the once marvellous ambience of the folk music to be found all up and down the High Street. It is no longer there. The bands booked into the pubs have been moved away from folk music. The pubs have been moved away from folk music. You admit moving folk music away to the Grammar School. You admit moving Bob and Kath Drage into the soulless (and beerless) goldfish bowl of the visitor centre and perhaps you will be able to read between the lines of their column in WoF – their singarounds were not well attended until the Monday (I know, I was there some of the time). Can you not remember when there were 50 to 100 singers in the "Eagle" (and another 50 to 100 in various pubs, and about the same again, but players rather than singers, in the Victoria and Bull)? Where are they now?

Curiously for a revivalist and a historian you seem bent on making the Sweeps' festival contemporary. Can you not see why that will destroy it? The folk song and music that accompanies the dance cannot be heard in the pubs any more. You cannot seriously call that "good balance". The morris dancers once singing (with fringe singers and players too) in every pub in the high street are now, by your own admission relegated to "assigned" venues and to cluster off the high street in the Man of Kent (I did go there several times to see if there was folk music, but I failed to find it).

Sweeps as it was this year was no longer a "traditional May Festival". At a "traditional May Festival" folk music is not (as you seem to say) "minority interest". It is the hub.

You also do not address the issue of the violent atmosphere and the purse-snatching. These, in my view, are strongly linked to your adoption of non-folk music as the music of choice for the festival. This has also been seen at Cambridge. Once that was an event fit for a family. Then it moved away from folk music. Now it is renowned as the "folk festival" with the most hostile and dangerous crowd.

You ought, I think, also to try to sound out the signers' and dancers' views of the most successful parts of the festival. The gossip I have heard singled out two pub evenings (one of which I attended and one not) as successful. At these, the performers were, on the one hand, Skinner's Rats and on the other, No Worries – both definitely folk bands.

This year was the worst Sweeps we have seen since we started attending, but the changes have not taken place over 20 years as you imply. The decline of which I speak has been over a mere 5 or 6 years. At the present rate of progress, it will not be long before the rump of Sweeps will be fit to be integrated into the "Celebrating Medway" festival and moved to the Dockyard. But if you want to reverse the decline it can be done. Book folk music into the pubs. Turn the bands' breaks into singarounds (or, if you must, to start with, "open mic" singing sessions. Keep the jukeboxes off. Impliment singarounds in large venues, with effective hosting. Tell booked bands they are "expected" to pop into the singarounds to do an odd song or two. You can turn it back into a folk festival. But you have to try.

Yours faithfully

Richard McD. Bridge

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 06:12 AM

Shame. I'd been hoping to get along to Rochester Sweeps some time, since it's not far, and I know it's been good. But that letter by the bloke in charge...All the business speech phrases.

They wreck everything these people. The thing to hope for is that the effect is to disperse us to the events and places that haven't been wrecked, a sort of seeding and dispersal process.

The flower head dies, and the seeds blow away. The interesting thing with that analogy is whether there is still a root that will someday produce another flower, or whether we have to start from seed each time.

But for now it sounds as if that Gordon Newton bloke is in charge, Rochester is off my shortlist. There are only so many festivals you can get to.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 11:46 AM

Yes. Sweeps was wonderful about 7 to 10 years ago.

Ely used to be good but it fell to the 2 in a bar rule and some jobsworths this year.

Does anyone know whether it will be back, and what else does anyone recommend?

I won't do Cambridge any more (no folk, see) and I'm not that sure about Tenterden. Broadstairs is too concert and not enough participatory singing.

Maybe Faversham hop festival?

Perhaps we should ahve a new thread on this.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Jim Cheydi
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 12:41 PM

Must've been a different Broadstairs I just got back from then. All sorts of stuff going on.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 12:42 PM

As small festivals go, Walton, in Essex isn't at all bad. It nearly died when they had to cancel at the last minute because Princess Diana couldn't be bothered to put on her seat belt, but it got revived from below so to speak, and is back with us once more.

I suppose the moral is, there ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and if a tourist minded local council wants to get into bed with you, they have something on their mind other than being a sleeping partner.

Maybe there's something to be said for having a council that doesn't like folk music to start with, like the people Shambles is up against down in Weymouth.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 01:34 PM

Looks like Walton is over for this year.

I have heard it well spoken of by Dave Bryant "the Tito Gobbi of the Balls Pond Road".

I think Wendy who used to run a club down in the weald of Kent now runs it. Can't think of her other name right now.

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps' Festival
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Aug 01 - 01:47 PM

Overe for this year? Dates are 7th to 9th September. The price of a season ticket went up from £31 to 35 on 31st July, that's all. But it's free camping.

(And it's still Wendy in high command. Wendy Ann Simon - "relax at the Festival in our Spa - steam, shower, aromatherapy, facials, body massage, manicures, pedicures.")

Subject: Rochester Sweeps Festival
From: DMcG
Date: 04 May 02 - 02:36 PM

Will anyone be there on Sunday 5th May?

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps Festival
From: Chris Amos
Date: 05 May 02 - 02:00 AM

I will be, and can recomend it to anyone who has never been before, a great day out.

C

Subject: RE: Rochester Sweeps Festival
From: GUEST,twiz
Date: 05 May 02 - 04:28 AM

Had a great day there yesterday... wrap up well though!

Dave.