The 14th Tenterden
Folk Festival has come and gone. I cannot believe how quickly the year has
gone by as it only seems a short time ago that we were booking the guests,
dance sides and venues and planning what we wanted to do this year.
Thank you:
Now is probably the time to say
thank you to everyone who gave up their time to help with this year’s Festival
including my fellow Trustees and the Festival committee, the stewards and
workforce, the guests, the dance sides, the stallholders, the singers and
musicians, Bo Foaks and Gordon Thrussell who did the sound for the concerts and dance
displays respectively, the venues, the publicans, the staff of the Tourist
Information Centres, the local police, St John’s Ambulance, Tenterden
Town Council, Ashford Borough Council, The Foundation for
Sport and Arts, our sponsors and supporters, the VIPs, the people of Tenterden
and of course all those who attended the Festival over the weekend. The Festival could not happen without any of
these individuals or organisations.
VIP Receptions:
I would particularly like to
thank Cllr Anne Thomas who has been a member
of the Festival committee from the early days of Tenterden Folk Day and became
a Trustee in June 1995. One of Anne’s
particular responsibilities during that time has been organising the VIP
reception which not only enables us to show our appreciation of the support we
get from many local Councillors, Council officers and other individuals but
enables us to get many of them into one place at the same time and show them a
small part of what we are setting out to achieve with the Festival. Unfortunately Anne was unable to attend the
Festival this year as she was in hospital.
We all wish her a speedy recovery.
Whilst on the subject of the VIP receptions I must also thank Kent and
East Sussex Railway for their hospitality and the provision of the buffet and
use of the Pullman carriage and Tenterden Vineyard for
the wine. Also The Mayor of Tenterden
for the use of the Mayors Parlour and Waitrose for
food. Not forgetting the dance sides who
entertained the dignitaries.
The Tenterden Club:
The Tenterden
Club’s Moulton Hall and Evan’s Bar proved to be an ideal
venue for the English Barn Dance with Tickled Pink. Attendance at the barn dance was up on
previous years and everyone enjoyed the music and the added comfort and
facilities offered by the Club, not least the bar. The Kerry Colleens, two championship standard
Irish dancers, put on an excellent display during the evening and I hope that
we will see more of them in future years.
Thanks also go to Eileen Catt and her team for the provision of
food. I very much hope that we can build
on the success of this year’s barn dance and the use of the Club next year.
Craft fair and stalls:
Gail Wright
has been organising the Festival craft fair and the street stalls for many years
and the range and quality of the stalls just seems to get better each
year. Last year we moved the folk sales
side of the craft fair into the adjacent Woolpack Barn and this year Kathy
and Bob Drage increased the number of stalls there too. We were rather worried when we saw the
weather in the few days running up to the Festival as the greens in the High
Street were very wet and on Thursday and Friday the rain was getting into the
barn. High quality musical instruments
and rain do not mix! The sudden change
in the weather for Saturday and Sunday was unbelievable and saved the weekend
not only for the stalls but also for the campsite and the outdoor dance
displays.
Kent and East Sussex Railway:
Thanks to K&ES Railway
several dance sides had the opportunity for a ride on the trains on Saturday
and Sunday. On Sunday various Festival
guests including Kimber’s Men and The Wealden
Ramblers together with Bob and Kathy Drage and various floor singers also
entertained passengers on the railway. I
have yet to fit this experience into the busy Festival weekend but look forward
to doing so in the future.
Concerts, sing-a-rounds, sessions, etc.:
I think I spent most of the
weekend going from one venue and event to another to get an overall feel of how
the Festival was going, to the extent that on Saturday evening the sole fell of
my shoe! A few events, particularly some
of the workshops, had a small but select audience, but most were very well
attended. The Friday night session in
the William Caxton was well supported by
singers mainly from Kent
and Sussex and
I hope we can do something similar next year.
Despite the fact that we had increased the number of events, the
Saturday evening concert in the Eight Bells was virtually full all evening and
was a great success, the sing-a-round in the White Lion was well attended and Kimber’s Men attracted a crowd in the Woolpack. Sunday has always been a quiet day but our
efforts to build up the events and attendances on Sunday seem to be paying
off. The Shanty and sea song session on
Sunday was very well supported but with the line up involved that should be no
surprise. The marquee in the Woolpack
garden was an added attraction and, new landlord willing,
we would like to build on that next year.
At one point The Simon Hopper Band had
an audience of around 40 people setting on chairs in the Woolpack car park
listening to them playing in the marquee.
Travelling Folk and The Drift performed in the newly renovated Vine Inn
and made a very positive impression on the management. It is impossible to
mention all the events and venues.
Dance displays:
The public face of the Festival
is very much the dance displays in the High Street, the procession and the dance
display in the coach park. Despite the
very wet weather in the few days before the Festival quite a few of the dancers
were camping in the town centre camp site or using the indoor camping provided
and there was a very colourful and exciting turnout with sides from Kent,
Sussex, Essex and London. As usual
Tanglefoot Appalachian performed to a good crowd out side the Town Hall and two
or three Morris sides were to be found at every suitable dance site around the
town centre. Our dance co-ordinator Dave
Masterson must be congratulated on producing a good turnout
yet again.
Ticket sales and street collections:
Advance ticket sales were up on
previous years and the Tourist Information Centre was busy selling tickets on
Friday and Saturday. We have not yet
fully collated all the returns but indications are that collections in the
streets and venues over the weekend topped £1,000 for the first time. All takings are of course ploughed back into
the charity to enable us to develop and expand the Festival and our other
charitable activities.
Kent County Show:
Tenterden Folk
Festival and South East Folk Arts Network co-ordinated three
days of folk song, music and dance in the Produced in Kent
Village at the County Show in July which helped to present performers from Kent
and Sussex to new audiences. This event
also helped to raise the profile of the Festival. We are hoping that we will be able to do
something similar in 2007.
Educational Workshops:
As part of our outreach work we
take folk song, music and dance into schools across Kent. Pete Castle and Keith
Kendrick have spent two days each at Homewood
School and Sixth Form Centre and
Great Chart CP School in October and we will be visiting Holy Trinity and St
John's School in Margate
in November. There are also other
bookings in the pipeline.
Conclusion:
With an event of this size an
occasional problem has to be expected and there were indeed one or two problems
but these were overcome and the weekend was, from our point of view, a great
success. I believe all the guests and
dance sides enjoyed taking part. Over
the weekend I met lots of old friends, some of whom I only see infrequently,
and made new ones.
Your views:
We welcome your constructive
comments on the Festival and our other activities. If you would like to get involved in helping
us develop the festival please contact any of the committee. We are always looking for extra committee
members, stewards, street collectors and other helpers. We are also looking grateful for sponsorship
or donations.
Tenterden Folk
Festival 2007:
Now we will start planning for Tenterden
Folk Festival 2007 which will take place from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th October 2007.
Alan Castle
Trustee and Festival Director
19th
October 2006
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