Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Martin Simpson has now been confirmed for the Wessex Folk Festival 2009, Old Harbour, Weymouth, Dorset

More wonderful news! Martin Simpson has now been confirmed for the Wessex Folk Festival 2009, Old Harbour, Weymouth. He will be playing in concert with Andy Cutting and Andy Seward on Friday 5th June.

As mentioned before Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson (with Chris Parkinson) will be playing on Saturday 6th June 2009.

Both concerts are planned for Hope Church, which is just round the corner from Hope Square. Further details www.wessexfolkfestival.co.uk

Destined for Weymouth, this is quite a prestigious array of giants from the folkie world!

Bye for now

Dave Milner - Wessex Folk Festival 2009

Thursday, 21 August 2008

Showcasing popular local Jigsaw Band with their blend of celtic, pop and party music

Yesterday, the Wessex Folk Festival showcased popular local Appalachian dancers and charity fund raisers Stampede and invited other local dancers to provide their details so they could be publicised to our readers.

Today, it's the turn of that high energy local band Jigsaw who had everybody in Hope Square jigging in time to their blend of Celtic, pop and party music June 2008.

Jigsaw are available for weddings, parties and pubs. Book them and you are sure, based on their success at the Wessex Folk Festival 2008, to enjoy an evening of live music, dancing and great fun.

If you know of a local band, folk rock or Celtic band you think should be featured here, let us know about it in the comments below and we'll see what we can do.

Bye for now

Rob Hopcott

Wessex Folk Festival blog

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

Weymouth dancers invited to showcase their dancing through the Wessex Folk Festival

As I wandered around Weymouth's Hope Square at the Wessex Folk Festival, I was struck by the number of dance forms that were showcased at this popular June festival and how greatly they were appreciated by the passing public.

Perhaps the dancing that drew the largest crowds was Stampede Appalachian clog dancers. They were positioned slightly further down than the traders stalls on Trinity Road on Weymouth's harbour side and they were so popular that sometimes it was almost impossible to get past them as I buzzed around trying to see everything.

The Stampede Appalachian clog dancers were collecting money for worthy cause Claire Lemmon Fund, as you might just be able to see from their sign. The Claire Lemmon Fund is a Dorset charity to raise money to provide for local children affected by cancer and give them the chance to go on holidays, day trips and to provide them with some luxuries.

The fund has also started to provide the Kingfisher Ward at Dorset County Hospital with vital equipment and furniture for the teenage room because local children with cancer go there if they become ill between treatments.

Stampede is a very popular band and dance group around Weymouth and Dorset and gives a great show to onlookers who I noticed were more than happy to contribute when they passed the bucket around collecting for the Claire Lemmon Fund.

The Wessex Folk Festival is a wonderful opportunity for showcasing dancers and giving them the oxygen of publicity. If you are involved in dance or dancing in Weymouth or Dorset and would like to tell people about your dance form, the Wessex Folk Festival, or even this blog, could be a great opportunity for marketing your dancing.

Feel free to comment at the foot of this post and tell us (and everybody else that loves the Wessex Folk Festival) about your dance school, dance group, dance troupe, dance lessons, dance side or whatever.

If you have a web site or blog for your dancing school, dancing group, dancing troupe, dancing lessons or other dancing activity, perhaps it would be a great opportunity to link or even run a featuring article here.

More dancing and dancers featured here soon :-)

Bye for now

Rob

Rob (Two Left Feet) Hopcott

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Dorset and Weymouth musicians, dancers, writers and businesses are invited to participate in the Wessex Folk Festival blog

This is a call to all Weymouth and Dorset musicians, dancers, writers and businesses to invite you to participate in this Wessex Folk Festival blog and our main Wessex Folk Festival web site.

If you are interested in helping the Wessex Folk Festival take place in June 2009 and would like to promote or market your band, music, craft, art, dance troupe, business, or anything else appropriate alongside the Wessex Folk Festival, we would like to hear from you.

You can contact us quite easily by telling us who you are and how to get in touch with you in the comments form at the foot of this article (itself a form of advertising for you).

Here are some benefits to both of us:

Businesses

The Wessex Folk Festival believes that a wide range of businesses can benefit from its activities.

This section deals with how the Wessex Folk Festival can help your business.

It may be that a small change in the way we operate in the promotional lead up to and in the running of the Wessex Folk Festival itself could reap your business major returns in profitability. You are in a better position than us to identify these changes. Tell us what we can do to help you and we will see what we can do to make the changes and help increase your profits.

Whether you are a small start up business, a charitable organisation, an established member of the Chamber of Commerce or a multi-national conglomerate, we would like to encourage you to join in the discussion about how we can make Wessex Folk Festival work better for you, your organisation and our Weymouth and Dorset community.

Weymouth and Dorset bands, musicians, performers, entertainers, dancers, artists and other creative activities.

Wessex Folk Festival is fundamentally about building together a community of local creative artistes in the context of folk music and traditional dance to provide an opportunity for musicians, singers, dancers and others to showcase their art and talent.

There are many ways we can help showcase dancers and musicians, ranging from appearances on our main Hope Square stage to intimate performances in our open mike concerts. Street performers, street dancers, street entertainers, buskers and many others can all benefit from the concentration of people interested in the arts achieved by the Wessex Folk Festival. Acoustic sessions in pubs include a wide variety of song and music including Irish, sea shanties, Bluegrass and more, and enable even beginners to perform on formal or improvised stages. Our formal concerts include big name artists. There are ceilidhs, workshops and more.

Mostly we are about performance art but, if you are a creator of fine or graphic art and would like to promote your paintings or other creations, talk to us and we will see how we can help you.

If you have a craft business, the many people who attend the Wessex Folk Festival may also be interested in your products.

Artistic and business partners in marketing and promotion

To be successful, the Wessex Folk Festival has to market itself in the same way as any other organisation and this offers businesses and artistic organisations in Weymouth and Dorset an opportunity to market themselves alongside the festival - to be Wessex Folk Festival Marketing Partners.

Advertise your business or artistic activity on this blog or on our main Wessex Folk Festival site.

If your core activity would be promoted by exposure to the people who visit our Wessex Folk Festival sites, you can receive immediate benefits by partnering with us.

Over the next months in the lead up to June 2009, we will be promoting our Wessex Folk Festival sites hard and, by being on our sites, you can get immediate benefit.

What is the cost?

Since the Wessex Folk Festival is founded on an ethical and artistic basis, nobody need be excluded by reason of cost. Essentially, the Wessex Folk Festival is a free festival. Hope Square was host to thousands of music lovers during the June 2008 festival who enjoyed the free music.

However, to run the festival costs money. The list of expenses incurred is quite remarkable.

To partner with the Wessex Folk Festival marketing campaign could cost you nothing, but, if you are making money out of our marketing, we do ask you to share in the costs by way of some sponsorship contribution.

If you are a business or artistic activity in Weymouth, Dorset, or even elsewhere, and you feel there could be a synergy with us and our marketing activities, let's talk first about how we can jointly market and then about any contribution.

Writers about music, dance, traditional or folk orientated activities.

If you are a writer or author actively engaged in writing about anything related to Wessex Folk Festival activities and would like to partner with us in our off-line or on-line promotion, we would like to hear from you.

It may be that you have a blog or web site on a related subject and would like to link with us or you might want to contribute an article to this blog about your Weymouth or Dorset band, dance troupe, club or society.

Perhaps you are a writer on a magazine, newspaper or local television and would like to do an article on us.

Finally

We are a community led organisation of volunteers seeking to make Weymouth and Dorset a better place in which to live and visit. We promote the arts and artists. Our activities could even be regarded as regenerative to the local and wider community. What better story could there be?

Talking is the first step in getting involved.

Let's talk.

We look forward to hearing from you in the comments below :-)

Eventually, we look forward to you joining in with the party at the Wessex Folk Festival in June 2009.

Dave Milner - Wessex Folk Festival 2009

Monday, 18 August 2008

Why wait for Wessex Folk Festival 2009 when you can join in playing or singing at the Sailors Return, Weymouth, Dorset now?

If you enjoyed the sessions at the Sailors Return during the Wessex Folk Festival in Weymouth in June 2008 (see photo) and can't wait for more great joining in, singing and instrumental sessions that will be at the heart of the 2009 Wessex Folk Festival, why not pop down and join in the fun every Wednesday at the Sailors Return.

Roger and Jo Quigley will give you a good welcome and make sure you have a chance to start a tune or sing your favourite song or, if you prefer, you may prefer just to join in with the other folk musicians and folk singers or even just listen.

Work has already begun on the Wessex Folk Festival 2009 and volunteers are always needed so you could even get involved in helping to make the next Weymouth music festival even better than it was last year.

Folk music is all about taking part and being involved so why not check out the Wednesday folk music session at the Sailors Return, Weymouth?

I hope to see you there but, if it is your first visit, remember to check with the pub to ensure the folk session is taking place on the night you want to attend :-)

Rob

(Rob Hopcott - online author and folkie)

Saturday, 16 August 2008

Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson at Wessex Folk Festival 2009, Weymouth, Dorset

Here is some great news!

On Saturday 6th June 2009, icons of the folk world Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson will be coming to Weymouth to headline the "Wessex Folk Festival 2009".

This will be the fourth year that this free folk music festival has taken place against the glorious backdrop of Weymouth Old Harbour and Hope Square.

The concert will be in Hope Church, near Hope Square, Weymouth and those who know and love the music of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson will understand that this is likely to be a totally unique, historic and "not to be missed" occasion.

Judging from the success of Wessex Folk Festival 2008, the whole Weymouth weekend will be a "not to be missed occasion"!

Watch the website www.wessexfolkfestival.co.uk for more top name news as the Wessex Folk Festival 2009 plans unfurl.

(Photo on left shows Dick Gaughan "going down a storm" at Hope Church, Wessex Folk Festival 2008)

Bye for now

Rob

Rob Hopcott - Internet author and folk musician