They said it would not last, but 4^th to 6^th October 2002 sees the 10^th anniversary of Tenterden Folk Festival. The festival started as a result of a one off, free concert held in June 1992 as part of a festival to celebrate the 150^th anniversary of the railway coming to Ashford. The concert, in Tenterden Leisure Centre included Tim Laycock, Doug Hudson and Woodchurch Morris. The total budget for the concert was around £250.

The concert was a success and with the support of Christina Bax (now Fuller) the then recently appointed arts officer at Ashford Borough Council, a small committee including Alan Castle and Dave Grabham was formed to consider holding a folk day in Tenterden. Jerry Smith had just taken over the Eight Bells in the High Street and offered us a home for a folk club in the pub. The Bells became a meeting point for everybody interested in helping to get a folk day going and Jerry also joined the committee along with Councillors Anne Thomas and John Link from Tenterden Town Council and Councillor Mike Levy from Ashford Borough Council. We also received support from Keith Rundell and Linda Robards at Ashford Library. Linda ran the first couple of festival craft fairs for us before handing over the reigns to Gail Wright. Dave began to get an increasing number of Morris sides wanting to attend the folk day and the number of singers and musicians turning up also began to increase each year. The High Street pub were getting more and more crowded every year. As the folk days began to develop the support and acceptance of the local community also began to grow and Tenterden Folk Day Trust was registered as a charity. The trust also started running other events during the year including educational projects in schools throughout Kent, occasional concerts, barn dances and workshops.

After a few years a Friday evening concert was added to the folk day and then a few things started being planned for the Sunday so the folk day developed into Tenterden Folk Festival. This was not really planed, it just happened by popular demand. In 2000 we staged a special Millennium concert at Homewood School and it was a complete sell out. A similar concert is being held for this 10^th anniversary year. The barn dance venue has moved around over the years but has now settled at Homewood, which has now won arts college status and should offer an even better venue.

Many of the Trustees, committee, dance sides, singers, musicians and supporters of the festival have been involved since the early days so the 10^th Tenterden Folk Festival will be a very special event for a large number of people. We look forward to seeing all our old friends there and to make many more new friends over the next 10 years.

Press release - June 2002

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