Big Top Concerts

Here are posters for the big top concerts

If you want an original sent so you can put it up somewhere please send us an email and we'll do just that.

Thanks

The English Music Session Moves to the Bear

With the rose & Crown barn now being used for a restaurant we needed to move the ever popular English Music Session to a venue that was large enough to take all the  players. So the Bear Hotel has come up trumps and Simon, the Landlord is welcoming the session with open arms. This is just great news as it provides another important link to the top of the town.
the host for all the sessions this year will be Dave Field. Many people have asked for the session to be run by someone "who really knows how to run a proper session" so Dave was put forward as the best man for the job and got it. Thanks Dave

7Champions dancing outside the Rose & Crown 2011

The Rosie will still have the ever popular morris dancing all day and Valmai's slow and easy music sessions in the morning.

... and here's the second one - the programme

We know you all want to know what's on at the festival so we are doing our very best to get the final programme up together. With over 200 individual events in just one weekend this is a monumental task to pull it all together for a few violunteers. However to whet your appetite here is a picture of what the front cover will look like. It's another Bob Berry design and this year incorporates a picture of the new venue, Yelde Hall, Brass Monkey, a selection of social dancers doing what they do best, enjoying themselves, and a cheeky little crowned jester who think it's his jubilee weekend!

Hopefully we will have the programme all up and running by next weekend. so either keep an eye on the website or better still, send us your email address and we will let you know when its ready

2 posts today (missed Monday!)

Big Top Concerts

We are presenting 3 major concerts in our Big Top venue this year. First up is Mick Ryans latest show "A Paupers Path to Hope". This was commissioned by The Gate to Southwell last year and was hugely welcomed and received by all. At Chippenham the show will have some of the acclaimed Thoresby Colliery band to add some great music to an already skilled cast. Check out more information about this on our website.

Sunday evening we present " A Convivial Commotion" 3 Choirs in Harmony. Lingmara World Music Choir, The Andover Museum Loft Singers and The Magnificent AK47's are working together to provide a programme of songs that will, to be honest, astound you. This is an exciting concert you will not want to miss.

Finally on the Monday evening we have "Brass Monkey" celebration 30 years singing and playing together. The band will have 2 trumpet players which makes it a six piece. Glorious, inspirational and gutsy music. Looking forward to that!

All concerts are from 6.30 - 8.30 in the Big Top on Island Park. There will be limited tickets available for sale for these events soon. keep an eye on  http://www.chippfolk.co.uk/ for more details

Yelde Hall - A new venue

This year sees a few changes (as always) and will include using the Yelde Hall as a small venue. This wonderful old building has, for many years, been the site for the Tourist Information Centre. This has now moved in next door to the Town Hall, a far better site, and that leaves the Yelde Hall free.
So, we will be using it for small concerts, meet the bands, discussions and workshops.
look out for the venue in your programme which will be online as soon as we can get it there

The Yelde hall is a very historic building and is now managed by the wonderful Chippenham Museum.

A new Penguin at Chippenham

Great News. The new Penguin Book of English Folk Songs has been updated and is going to be brought to the Festival for a pre-launch event. This is a major coup and we are delighted to hear that Steve Roud, the editor of the aforementioned,  will be in attendance at the event along with Martin & Sian Graebe who will sing some of the songs contained in the new book. The official Launch is in London at Cecil Sharp House on the 12 June but you can get hold of your copy by dropping in to the Yelde Hall, Chippenham Folk festival on June 2nd. Whoo Hoo - a new penguin. Brilliant

'The trees they grow so high and the leaves they grow so green.
The day is past and gone, my love, that you and I have seen'

One of the great English popular art forms, the folk song can be painful, satirical, erotic, dramatic, rueful or funny.They have thrived when sung on a whim to a handful of friends in a pub; they have bewitched generations of English composers who have set them for everything from solo violin to full orchestra; they are sung in concerts, festivals, weddings, funerals and with nobody to hear but the singer.

This magical new collection brings together all the classic folk songs as well as many lesser-known discoveries, complete with music and annotations on their original sources and meaning. Published in cooperation with the English Folk Dance and Song Society, it is a worthy successor to Ralph Vaughan Williams and A.L.Lloyd's original Penguin Book of English Folk Songs, first published in 1959.

Daily???

OK , Hands up those that noticed that the daily blog was started one month ago and has only one post in it! However we'll have another go with a barrage of stuff for you over the coming days and weeks running up to the festival.

First up is the news that the festival was massively represented at the recent Queens Jubilee event in Salisbury Cathedral ground on May 1st. Literally thousands of people got to see traditional music, Morris, mumming and a slice of our English heritage that we love so much,.

Hopefully this will turn itself into ticket sales , not only for the festival, but to other folk events round wiltshire too. here are a couple of pictures of the event.

A view of the inside of our display tent

and Bob with a bevy of beauties.  Yes sir!

Pictured with Bob are Melissa Barnett (Chippenham Museum), Sue Wilthew (Chief Exec Chippenham Council) Gill Berry (The Real Boss) and Vickty Welsh (Chippenham Community Area Manager)