Loughborough Folk Festival

Subject: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 06 Jul 06 - 05:45 PM

Hithere,

Dunno if this has been posted previously, but I don't think it has - do forgive me if I'm duplicating the message. Loughborough Folk Festival is a brand new festival taking place October 13 - 15 in - you guessed it - Loughborough.

Headliners include Dougie MacLean, the Poozies (reunited with Sally Barker), and Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick. Lots more lovely guests, a real ale bar, morris, craft market, ceilidhs...oooh, it's going to be fab.

There's indoor camping and a wealth of local accomodation - we're just sorting out hardstanding for caravans.

Early bird prices apply till 15 July, so hurry! Please visit the website on www.loughboroughtownhall.co.uk/folkfestival for details on the full programme, prices and accomodation.

We're also currently recruiting stewards; again, you'll find details on the website.

Thanks - hope to see you there!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Bizibod
Date: 08 Jul 06 - 07:25 PM

Thanks for that,I've looked at the website and it's a cracking line-up.I'm only 17 miles away in Nottingham,so that's my weekend sorted !

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Jul 06 - 04:22 PM

Cracking lineup? Why thank you! :)

Look forward to seeing you there!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 06 Sep 06 - 06:10 AM

feresh

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: muppitz
Date: 06 Sep 06 - 09:12 AM

I'll more than likely be there, messers McLean & Lakeman are two of my favourites!

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Louisey
Date: 12 Sep 06 - 11:47 AM

We were planning to attend for the whole weekend, but something has come up on Saturday, so will probably pop over for the Sunday as it's not too far...

Louise

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 10:48 AM

Nice to knbow that there will be a smattering of catters about!

Do find me and say hello. I'll be the one tearing my hair out...

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Liath
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 03:01 PM

I'm hoping to be there...

Will there be any sessions and stuff going on? Just wondering if it's worth bringing instruments down or not?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 13 Sep 06 - 04:32 PM

Definitely! We're planning that the upstairs cafe will host sessions, with singarounds in the Council Chamber (not dissimilar to the sorts of rooms used for similar things at The National), LN ceilidh in the Victoria Room (our ballroom); and during the day additional sessions and workshops at local pubs like the Swan in the Rushes.

Workshop leaders include Tim van Eyken, Chris Wood, Keith Kendrick, possibly Laurel Swift, and others (just finalising all that lovely stuff now). Hoping to do some dance workshops, too, with people like Fiona Taylor from the Demon Barbers.

Full programme of "fringey" events will be available over the weekend.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Liath
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 04:04 AM

Great! If I make it, I'll bring stuff down :-)

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Folkiedave
Date: 15 Sep 06 - 06:49 PM

I've had a look at the website, looks like a cracking festival.


Good luck anyway.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Joules
Date: 16 Sep 06 - 05:14 PM

Any news on the caravan hardstanding yet. Need to know if we are gonna be driving down on a daily basis or if we can all partake in a beverage or three and stagger back to the caravan on a nightly basis.

Cheers

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Sep 06 - 05:55 AM

the caravan hardstanding is at Loughboough Grammar School, a 5 - 10 minute walk form the Town Hall. You can book your caravan place at the same time you book your ticckets, through the box office.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Folkiedave
Date: 28 Sep 06 - 01:03 PM

Any more news on what Morris sides are appearing?

Dave Eyre

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 07:20 AM

Yep! They are:
Anstey Morris Men
Bakanalia
Black Annis
Bare Bones
Lady Bay Revellers
New St George
Pennyroyal Garland
Touchwood Appalachian

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: breezy
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 03:16 PM

same week end as Banbury then, where a mudgather is planned

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Folkiedave
Date: 30 Sep 06 - 04:46 AM

Just over an hour apart. Chance to do both?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 02 Oct 06 - 06:59 AM

Yes, come and do both! :)

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: BigStorr
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 05:48 AM

Looks great, Where will the Morris be happening?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST,Neil and Julie Smith
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 05:27 AM

Hi there

Could you possibly tell us when and where the sessions and singaround are, we're trying to decide which day(s) to come

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST,Neil and Julie Smith
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 05:29 AM

Our details are

[e-mail]

www.songsmith.org.uk

www.myspace.com/neilandjuliesmith

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 01:57 PM

All the workshop sessions and the weekend timetable are now available on the website. Singarounds and sessions will take place from about 10:30 pm here at the town hall, with (hopefully!) more spontaneous musical offerings in the bar at The Swan in the Rushes on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Cath
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 07:45 AM

Anything happening at the Packhorse?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 07:53 AM

Johnny Silvo is on tomorrow night at The Pack as a fringe event.

Missed an earlier question: Morris will take place in the marketplace outside the Town Hall on Sunday, 2 - 4pm.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 08:38 AM

Just noticed this on the latest post:
>>Singarounds and sessions will take place from about 10:30 pm here at the town hall<<
seems like a rather late start, or do you mean a.m. instead??

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Folkiedave
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 10:28 AM

I think it must be. Probably a case of organisers´s finger.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 11:35 AM

Nope - late-night singarounds from 10:30 pm. We also have a cafe and bar where you can sing and play your hearts out all day, if you like.

I'd also like to let everyone know that Loughborough Folk Festival is officially sold out. Thanks to all of you who have bought tickets for your support.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST,msrule
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 07:28 PM

Yay late night sessions -nice one Ms Crumpet and congratulations on the sell out too!

Looking forward to the weekend immensely... hope you get chance to enjoy it and have a beverage or five!!

MsR xx

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 04:13 AM

Only a few hours to go... should be a great weekend.
On me way!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 05:04 AM

A beverage or five are definitely on the cards! See you all there (or should i say here!)

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: muppitz
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 07:41 AM

Hello
My Mum has been a bit of a silly and left it to the last minute to try and get a ticket so if anyone hears of a spare, or maybe you can't make it and would like someone to buy it from you, could you let me know please, either by PM or via my e-mail [e-mail]

Cheers

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST,merrylocks
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 05:35 PM

Sorry don't have a spare ticket for you but have got some news Shhhhh guess who has a job, and don't call yr mother stupid

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 04:56 AM

Well it's all over now (shame!) but hey! Still climbin' down the wall..... I'll post some highlights later when I've recovered.

A resounding success by all accounts. MASSIVE well dun to Joanie and all her team. Wot a fantastic team too, most impressive, town hall staff couldn't have been more helpful or better organised.

Overall impression - tremendous enthusiasm from performers and audience right through.

Off to unpack and catch up with three days' Cat!

M

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Skipjack K8
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 05:34 AM

It was nice

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: muppitz
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 07:32 AM

Loved every minute I was there! Apart from the 30 minute breaks in the middle of each act, that seemed a bit excessive to me.

But I even danced! I was the first up to dance to Seth and I also danced at the ceilidh, I haven't done ceilidh dancing since my age was in single figures, I blame Ember, they're a bad influence on me!

Can Merrylocks give me a clue as to who he/she is, I'm in the dark?

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: jonm
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 08:18 AM

Excellent, especially as a first go at the festival/ venue etc. The half hour breaks could perhaps have been adjusted to suit the acts, it was obviously not long enough to change over Seth Lakeman's band to Little Johnny England, too much gear to shift and set up, but it was a tragedy not to get an encore out of Coope Boyes and Simpson, given that three mics had to be replaced by one mic and a guitar.

I have a personal bugbear about the daft wristbands, and didn't dare go swimming at the w/e just in case, plus the catering at the venue was inadequate, but apart from that, utterly brilliant. What a line-up, mostly major names and safe bets for entertainment value, plus a few excellent upcomers, too.

The kids loved it, too. Shame that for most of the concerts, they were the only two younger than late teens in evidence.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 10:35 AM

A very enjoyable weekend, well done to Joan and all the staff at the Town Hall.
I agree about the change-overs, could have been adjusted to suit. And if you wanted to see every act, there was no time to get a proper meal - we lived on sandwiches.

But it all seemed to have been really well thought out and planned and the discounted hotel was VERY nice!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Folkiedave
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:15 AM

Sounds like a good do......

Anyone want to comment on Carthy/Swarbrick, especially if you remember them from years passed?

Dave

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: jonm
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:37 AM

The last time I saw Martin Carthy on his own, I thought he had lost it. The voice was thin and struggling to stay in tune and the guitar was his usual "play the tune" accompaniment but without all the embellishments in the harmony and bass which are his trademark.

Last night he was much changed - the voice, although not quite as strong as of old, carried the songs well, and the guitar was stately and powerful. Still played that old Japanese folk melody "tu ning" between every number, though!

Swarb looked healthier than he did at Cropredy, played well etc. but while there was some banter between songs, it was mainly between one or other of them and the audience. I recall there used to be more interplay between them.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 11:47 AM

Nice to meet a couple of Mudcatters at the festival this weekend! Thanks for your kind and supportive words - I'm so glad you enjoyed yourselves!

I can explain the turnaround times: they were also sound check times. Hence the half hour thing. Several people said they really liked that: a chance between acts to get up and have a wander, instead of a long concert in the afternoon and another one the evening. With seated venues it can be awkward moving about a lot if you decide to go and see what's in the other room, and no one wants to feel stuck in a place when they'd rather be somewhere else. So the time between acts theoretically helped with that easy movement between gigs. I say theoretically - please let me know if you disagree.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 16 Oct 06 - 03:19 PM

I think it worked really well - a chance to go and get a beer, cup of tea, or just a chat. I found it frustrating on Sunday that the concerts in the 2 rooms started exactly the same time, if they had been staggered I could have seen a bit of both.

Anne

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MikkinNotts
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 04:54 AM

Congrats to all those involved in the LFF. I was very sorry not to have been there, but I decided to go down to Banbury FF. (it was a tough decision).
I also missed Folkwaves last night and would be very interested to hear any reviews of the Dougie Maclean's concert or talk. I am a huge fan.
Also were there many sessions around the town that made the earth move!!

I spent the weekend alternating between sessions at The Bell and the Mill in Banbury. Watch Out for another young band (far too young for so much talent) "One String Loose". They played a brilliant set on Friday night at the Mill. Perhaps they will be headlining next years LFF.

Hope to be there next year, don't forget now tell me about Dougie!

Cheers

Mikk

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Mrs_Annie
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:12 AM

The Dougie Maclean concert was excellent, but sadly finished at 10. There was nothing following it, so we all thought he could have been given a longer time slot (unless he only was paid for an hour!)
He declined to sing Caledonia when it was requested.

The talk was hosted by Colin Irwin who did a brilliant job, and by some clever talking round the subject, persuaded him to sing Caledonia for us! We found out about Dougie's tractor collection, and that he had personally approved Beth Orton as a valid songwriter, when she was young! Most enjoyable.

Anne

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MikkinNotts
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 09:11 AM

Thanks for that Anne. I saw Dougie At Warwick FF, and was also slightly disappointed that he was only on for 1 hour. His songs and performance are so good that an hour with Dougie just seems to fly by. He had an act following him at Warwick so I forgave him, but it's a shame he didn't extend his time for you at Loughborough.
It was good that you got to him perform "Caledonia" at the talk. I read about his Fergie tractor fetish in the Oct/Nov edition of "Dirty Linen" magazine. I will always be grateful to Dougie for making his song freely available via the "Wee Guitar" website and teaching material from Dunkeld. My playing has improved greatly with his help. I was hoping to go up to Pitlochry for his second Perthshire Amber weekend, but sadly I can't make it. His DVD of last year's festival is brilliant he is even more stunning with the "band". The last track on the DVD "Charlotte" features the wonderful piper Gordon Duncan playing lovely low whistle on the track, and it is so sad that a few sort weeks after that concert Gordon sadly passed away.
Thanks again Anne for the insight of Dougie at Loughborough. Now where did I put that Beth Orton CD.

Mikk.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Oct 06 - 07:55 PM

Yes, it was a shame that Loughborough clashed with Banbury, because they're not really that far apart for people looking for a festival this time of year.

Let's hope they don't clash next year!

Kitty

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 06:46 AM

Don't worry - they won't!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: jonm
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 07:34 AM

Can you drop hints re. potential dates for next year (I do appreciate that nothing is yet confirmed) so I can leave two free weekends in my diary next year?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 09:17 AM

That's hard right now. We have to evaluate the toll the event took on our staff at this busy time of year (right before panto - oh yes it is!) and decide whether this is the right time for us, as a venue, to run a large-scale event (though even if we do, we'll go a week earlier so as not to clash with Banbury). The other issue is that October's getting crowded in the midlands - there's a new festival coming in for the last weekend in October next year (not sure if I can say any more at this stage). It's starting to feel like July!

The alternative is to move it to the spring, when we're relatively quiet. Any thoughts about preferences/reasons not to do one or the other?

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: MoorleyMan
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 10:01 AM

I do understand and sympathise, Joanie.
Well, here's my thoughts for what they're worth , having cast a cursory glance at next year's calendar:-

Probably your best solution overall is to move to one week (or even two?) earlier than Banbury, for the best chance of keeping the momentum going as well as retaining the loyalty of this year's many satisfied "customers" (and maximising your chance of picking up some of those who were at Banbury this year of course).

If you were to move it too far forward in the year, you'd risk losing valuable planning time now, as well as losing the chance of getting artistes who are already booked up for the first half of the 2007 festival season. Also, many festivals are already committed to their weekend-dates, for next year at any rate.

July's already crowded (myself I'm already booked up for two, possibly three of the month's weekends), with Warwick and Cambridge both nearby and popular.

August is patchy, but Cropredy's very close. And Sidmouth, Whitby and Broadstairs are all week-long affairs that draw from far and wide.

May's always chancey with its two bank=holidays.
June's more patchy as regards festivals, early June's better but it comes too soon after all the big clashes at Spring Bank Holiday. Then mid-June's got the Festival Of The Peak at Carsington, not far away, and Alcester which is quite close too, also the Big Session (Leicester), Belper x2, followed by Four Fools.

April? well there's always Easter's movable dates and termtime problems to contend with - and it's only six months away now!!! Too soon....

Hope these thoughts are useful.
Best of luck in the planning - keep us all posted!

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: GUEST,DaveS at Work
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 10:05 AM

If next year is going to be as busy as this one was has been then following Off The Tracks at the end of May during June and July you will have Mansfield, Belper, National Forest, Nailers and Stainsby festivals right on our doorstep. So you'll be hard pushed to find a spring weekend that is free.

Subject: RE: Loughborough Folk Festival
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 19 Oct 06 - 10:45 AM

to be clear, we wouldn't be programming it for spring 2007 - it would be spring 2008.