The seventh Tenterden Folk Festival was another successful event. Despite the very wet and windy weather in the days before the festival we were very lucky to see the sunshine and reasonable crowds of people over the weekend, if not as many as we would have expected had the weather been better.

The Tenterden Club proved to be an ideal venue for the barn dance with The English Country Dance Band, and attracted between 150 and 200 people. The various concerts and folk clubs attracted enthusiastic audiences of between 30 and 100 people to see the likes of The Copper Family, Ian and David Campbell, Bing Lyle and Ben Paley, Pete Castle and daughter Lucy Castle-Hotea. The most well attended concerts were on Saturday afternoon in the Leisure Centre and the very popular acoustic folk club on Sunday morning. The workshops and sundry small events all went well. The sing-a-rounds and sessions in the pubs were, as usual, packed to capacity. The Tabs played to a full house in The Woolpack on Saturday night. We must have them back again soon.

For the first time we used crush barriers and a small dance platform in the lay-by out side the Town Hall, which enabled the Appalachian dancers to put on a very popular display. We hope that they will be back next year.

Some of the 25 Morris sides stayed over, camping in the Scout hut or doing bed and breakfast around the town. One side, Wild Hunt Bedlam Morris, was still dancing at 4 o'clock on Sunday! The events on the trains in conjunction with the Kent and East Sussex Railway were very popular and went extremely well. We hope to repeat this idea next year as well.

Special thanks are also due to many other people including; all the dance sides, the floor singers and musicians, Gordon Thrussell at Courtfield Studios for PA in the coach-park, Cliff Baylis for standing in for Bo at short notice, Margaret and Mark for providing bed and breakfast for guests, all the stewards, Kevin the Wizard and all the collectors, David Such for the stage, Martin for all his help, the police, the St. John's Ambulance, you, and many more.

Tenterden Folk Day Trust runs an annual educational project in schools in the Borough of Ashford. In June 1999 we also ran a series of workshops for KCC's Kentweek Festival for Schools. In October and November "Bard, ballads and beyond" workshops are being held in five more local schools. Pete Castle and Lucy Castle-Hotea ran a very successful half-day workshop at Highworth Grammar School for Girls and Pete and Bing Lyle are running other workshops at Great Chart, John Mayne, Charing and Christ Church High. These workshops are suitable for students from about seven to 18 years old and are always very popular with students and staff.

Tenterden Folk Festival 2000 will take place from Friday 6^th to Sunday 8^th October 2000. Thanks to special funding from Ashford Borough Council, we are planning a Millennium Concert on Friday evening at Homewood School. The concert will feature a top folk band and details will be announced as soon as contracts have been finalised. Various other events are also under consideration for 2000 but the Festival will continue to be the informal, friendly festival that you all know and love!

Updated 31 October 1999

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