Tenterden Folk Festival 2000 took place over the weekend of Friday 6^th to Sunday 8^th October. Unfortunately the weather was not very kind to us with a very wet Saturday. However the special Millennium Concert at Homewood School was a great success. Approximately 250 people packed the hall to see Martin Carthy and John Kirkpatrick play solo sets as well as a set as a duo. Tan Tethera opened the concert and included two or three new songs in their set as well as some of their more tried and tested material. Pete and Lucy Castle opened the second half and Lucy's fine fiddling was highly complimented.

Thanks are due to many people for making the Festival a success including, in no particular order and with apologise to any body I have inadvertently missed out, Gordon Thrussell of Courtfield Audio for the PA at Friday's Millennium Concert and the coach park; Bo Foaks for PA on Saturday at the Afternoon Concert and the evening Folk Club; David Such for building the stage in the lay-by; Bob, Vic and Tina for comparing concerts, Bob and Kathy Drage for their hard work comparing, stewarding and collecting a record sum despite the weather; all the stewards including Mick and Yvonne, Martin, John, Keith, Mark, Roger and Catherine and Mike; Greg for running an excellent bar on Friday and Ben and Margaret for helping behind it; Margaret and Mark for providing guests with B&B; the police; St John's Ambulance; Kent and East Sussex Railway for hosting the VIP reception and the "folk trains"; the pubs; craft stalls, the Tenterden Club, Tenterden Leisure Centre, St Mildred's, the Chamber of Commerce, the Town and Borough Councils and the many other people and organisations with out whom the Festival would not be possible.

Special thanks are, of course, due to the many Morris sides and musicians who braved the rain to take part in the procession and to dance in the coach park. Particularly Woodchurch Morris, the host side; all the guests, singers and musicians who turned up and helped to drink the pubs dry! Also to those Morris sides who stuck it out and stayed on for Sunday when it turned out to be bright and dry. Lastly, but by no means least, to all the members of the committee for their hard work throughout the year.

Joe Stead performed to a full house (50) when he presented his "Liverpool to Valparaiso" workshop in the White Lion. The "crew" was on fine form singing the choruses.

John K ran a very well attended (26) and interesting workshop.

The craft and music stalls in the Town Hall and the additional stalls in the High Street for the first time proved a big draw despite the wet conditions. We hope to do that again next year.

The Sussex Pistols played for the Barn Dance in the Tenterden Club on Saturday. The wet weather had unfortunately reduced the attendance but a great time was had by all. The Club is an excellent venue for the dance.

Altemet, from Holland, joined Tan Tethera in the Lion on Sunday morning for one of the best music and song sessions of the weekend, while Bob and Kathy ran a crowded sing-a-round in the Bells with festival guests joining floor singers.

Mike Fullerton wrote on behalf The Pilgrims. "Many thanks on behalf of the band for placing us in such a lovely venue (The White Lion) for this year's Festival. We had a beer or two in there during the afternoon watching the hurdy gurdy, fiddle and various other instruments and it was a lovely crowd. So much so that my usual pre-performance nerves hardly registered. From the moment we started our verse of "tune up" we obtained a spontaneous ovation and I knew that this was a fun crowd. They cheerfully applauded the songs they didn't know and gave us an extra hand for the ones they did know. It is nice to play assorted folk music to those in the know and there were aficionados from America, Canada and all over England and Ireland who exchanged views with us in the pub. There were a few shocked faces when our tape was offered free but a more deserving crowd I couldn't imagine."

Your comments on the Festival would be welcome. For one thing we need your feed back to enable us to measure whether we achieved the aims and objectives agreed with our sponsors. We would also like to know if there are any particular guests that you would like us to book in the future, events you would like us to include and any suggestions on how we can improve the festival. You may even wish to offer to help by joining the committee, becoming a steward, sponsoring the Trust, running a fund raising event, etc. Feel free to tell us what you think we are doing right!

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