Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th June 2011
A tradition in the making - song, music, dance and village life...
| The 2010 event is
over, and all the hard work was so worthwhile. I had tears in my eyes a
couple of times on Sunday - at the end of the final concert, and during
the wonderful stragglers session. Tears of joy and gratitude to a great
team and some really wonderful entertainers. See the Parish Magazine report (at the foot of this page), plus the gallery
is now open - many more pictures to come, and lots here too. Thank you so much, everyone! And everyone is asking us about next year - it will be from the 3rd to the 5th June, following a similar pattern to this year's event, but with more entertainment and fun on the main site. More details as planning moves on.....first confirmed guests include Vicky Swan and Jonny Dyer (by overwhelming request from the committe and the visitors) and the Deadmoney Duo, including young Cohen Kilcoyne! Dick Goddard Music, Song and Dance Coordinator (and general dogsbody) |
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Artist in residence: Olivia Keith was our artist in residence during the weekend. Olivia draws "live", mainly in charcoal, to capture the essence of traditional music, song and dance performances. During the weekend she produced some great canvasses - we've even bought a couple for ourselves. You can see some of her brilliant pictures on her website. Thanks to Olivia for being with us.
There’s little doubt that if you were in Garway over the first weekend in June you would now know what a Morris dance looks like, although you might be confused as to whether Morris dancers are men or women, or wear white clothing with colourful braces, or flowered hats, or rag jackets, or look like bikers or genteel ladies.
The first Garway Folk Weekend offered us a variety of Morris dancers, stunning singers and musicians in a marquee behind the Moon and workshops where we learnt to write songs, play guitar, flute and even a thing called the Swedish Nyckelharpa. And there were impromptu music and song sessions and lots of activities for children at Jan Edgecombe's multi-coloured van. It was a chance to experience, as the programme said, “a gentle weekend of music, dance and song”.
The ceilidh – another name for a barn dance - in the village hall with guest spots from a couple of dance groups plus dance music from the Bordewey Young Band soon became a rollicking bouncy night! Meanwhile in the concert at the marquee some great acts were showing their skills, and in the pub garden musicians who had never met before were "jamming" on fiddles, melodeons, guitars, concertinas, bagpipes and whistles for the pure pleasure of making music.
Some of the stars of the weekend were the youngsters, including the Tunewrights, Garway Band, Infinite Cherries and Cohen Kilcoyne, while Austin Keenan’s storytelling sessions pulled good audiences and the market stalls were very popular. It was also good to see local groups like the Singing Tree and Them Boonies on the same stage as nationally known acts, including many peoples' favourites Vicki Swan and Jonny Dyer.
From the opening concert on Friday to the final “stragglers’ session” on Sunday, this was a great chance to experience music, dance and song rarely heard and seen in our community. Thanks to everybody for the huge efforts, from organising the event and loaning fields to attending the markets and providing food and drink, that went into making it such a fun weekend!
