English Folk Dance and Song Society

Congratulations to Pauline Woods-Wilson on receiving an EFDSS Gold Badge!
Pauline, President of The Morris Federation from January 2020, has been modernising and enlarging the activities and profile of the organisation for the wider morris world
bit.ly/4l9oIe1

Congratulations to Laurel Swift on receiving an EFDSS Gold Badge!
A musician, singer and dancer, solo, with Gadarene and The Gloworms, Laurel founded Morris Offspring, co-created Under Her Skin with Debs Newbold.

bit.ly/4l9oIe1

Congratulations to Alex Merry on receiving an EFDSS Gold Badge!
Alex is an illustrator, portrait painter and folk artist. As a founding member of Boss Morris, she breathes new life into ancient customs through performance, craft and reinvention.
@alexmerryart.bsky.social
bit.ly/4l9oIe1

Congratulations to Fay Hield on receiving an EFDSS Gold Badge!
Fay is Professor of Music and director of Soundpost, a community music organisation. Alongside, she has maintained a performance career, with The Full English Band receiving two Folk Awards. @fayhield.bsky.social
bit.ly/4l9oIe1

Congratulations to Jo Freya on receiving an EFDSS Gold Badge!
Jo composes, sings, is a multi-instrumentalist and the current artistic director of National Youth Folk Ensemble. ‪@jofreya.bsky.social
‬
bit.ly/4l9oIe1

Black British history recalled in BBC Proms gig Angeline Morrison sings songs of sorrow

Great review of Angeline Morrison @angelcakepie2.bsky.social and the Sorrow Songs at the BBC Proms on @culturednortheast.bsky.social Angeline will be performing as part of our Black British Folk Takeover at @cecilsharphouse.bsky.social in October
www.culturednortheast.co.uk/p/black-brit...

Listen: Classic Folk Classic Folk with Mike Norris Classic Folk is unique. It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings. From the great source singers to the legends o...

Some sad songs in this week's episode of Classic Folk
www.efdss.org/listen

'Why I love the Sidmouth Folk Festival weekend' by Kirstie Newton for Devon Life. "A small thrill for us was rocking up for a campsite bacon butty, only to find ourselves a table away from Jon Boden @jonboden.bsky.social."
www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/magazines/de...

Sidmouth Folk Festival 'huge' for town as 2025 event starts Thousands of people are expected to travel to the Devon town during the eight-day event.

Nice little interview with James Garrett of @sidmouthfolkfest.bsky.social about the Festival's importance to the town. "There's not many places like that where the barriers are down and you'll find some of the top artists are having a pint in the pub"
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

CFP 📣!! Deadline 4 August!! The Traditional Song Forum #TSF welcomes abstracts on #Folk Songs in the Archive - Where can we find them and are they safe? for their autumn conference on 18 October at the Gloucestershire Archives. Details and full call at this link: tradsong.org/tsf-autumn-c...

Our friends at the Historically Informed Summer School are still accepting bookings from folk singers and instrumentalists to join them at Bishop Burton College in Beverley from 18th-22nd August 2025.
www.hiss.org.uk

As well as our EFDSS Presents strand at The Sidmouth Folk Festival, we are also pleased to offer; Cecil Sharp House Choir performing Sat 2 Aug, 4.15pm at the Methodist Church; and on Sun 3 Aug a Lunchtime Ceilidh with the EFDSS Ceilidh Band, 12 noon-2:30pm at The Anchor Inn with Caller Prue Reilly.

Join us for a top afternoon of joyful folk as we host Folk Family Sunday at King’s Cross Summer Sounds at Coal Drops Yard on Sun 17 Aug.

We present:
- Two sets from the National Youth Folk Ensemble
- Two one-hour sessions of dancing with our Bhangra Ceilidh
- A set from Gadarene
bit.ly/4mk5kvI

A group of musicians, callers and staff from English Folk Dance and Song Society stand in front of a curtain with their instruments

Our Bhangra Ceilidh workshop at One Dance UK’s U.Dance National Festival was a hit!
Described on the day as “joyful, wholesome, inclusive, the most wonderful experience” this is what dance is all about!
Join us for our second Bhangra Ceilidh @cecilsharphouse.bsky.social on 29 Nov: bit.ly/4kQ9Fpq

We are thrilled that our Philanthropy Director, Peter Craik, will be joining the 2025/26 cohort for the Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy's Senior Fundraising Fellowship Programme - huge congratulations!

Read more: bit.ly/4ohZ0qw

Listen: Classic Folk Classic Folk with Mike Norris Classic Folk is unique. It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings. From the great source singers to the legends o...

Classic Folk is lively and summery this week, including performances from the BBC Folk Awards and some American favourites. Listen now:

BBC Radio 3 - BBC Proms, 2025, BBC Proms: Angeline Morrison - The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs of Black British Experience) Live at the BBC Proms from the Glasshouse, Gateshead, British folksinger Angeline Morrison

We're hearing remarkable reviews of Angeline Morrison's intimate & moving BBC Proms concert from The Glasshouse at the weekend..

You can catch the concert on BBC Radio 3 (available for two months): Angeline Morrison - The Sorrow Songs (Folk Songs of Black British Experience): bit.ly/3IQLSZ1

The EFDSS team (Jen Cox, Oli Matthews, Rachel Elliott and Kerry Fletcher) at People Dancing's Summer Intensive - after leading the welcome ceilidh and before leading the Sociable Dancing: Teaching and Creating with Folk workshop at De Montfort University Leicester @dmu.ac.uk

Cecil Sharp gets a mention in Bob and Roberta Smith's work in the @royalacademyarts.bsky.social Summer Exhibition this year.
We stand with Bob and Roberta on this, and encourage artists from all backgrounds to Sing, Dance, Play and Paint!

Folk Uncovered: Online Course. Level 2 - Folk Song in England with Steve Roud Following the success of Steve Roud’s Folk Song in England course in the spring, he will teach a follow-on level 2 version this coming autumn, with guest speaker Dr Julia Bishop.

Level 2 of our online course 'Folk Song in England' will dig deeper into England’s traditional songs.
Steve Roud will guide you, with Dr Julia Bishop taking over as guest tutor for one session.
Book now: bit.ly/4lvP5vt
Image: John England (1865?-1940) by Cecil Sharp

Morris Contemporary Dance Morris Contemporary Dance This resource aims to introduce a creative, contemporary approach to using morris within the secondary dance curriculum. It is for teachers and students teaching and learning...

Resource of the Month:
Morris Contemporary Dance
For the use of morris dancing within the secondary dance curriculum, it contains teachers’ notes and 31 specially filmed video clips showing morris dancing steps, contemporary dance approaches, and how to combine these.
bit.ly/3ItNKqt

Protect Where We Play graphic, featuring a girl smiling as she runs with a rugby ball, and the words 'Protect Where We Play: Playing fields and pitches deliver at least £2 billion in improved wellbeing every year' written on the left.

🟢 Playing fields and pitches deliver at least £2⃣ billion in improved wellbeing every year.
🟢 They also help 4⃣ million people per year to be active, including 1⃣ million children.

We're asking Government to Protect Where We Play and #SaveOurSport 👇👇

sportandrecreation.org.uk/campaigns-an...

ONLINE LECTURE: Un/Common People and The Museum of British Folklore - a History, by Simon Costin - Wiltshire Museum Simon will be talking about the Museum of British Folkore, its fascinating folk collections and developing Un/Common People with the museums of Wessex: Swindon Museums, Wiltshire Museum, Salisbury Mus...

We worked on the 'blockbuster' exhibition Making Mischief, so can guess this will be a great talk from the Museum of British Folklore!
www.wiltshiremuseum.org.uk?event=online...

Our very own London Youth Folk Ensemble will be opening the day’s musical line-up at @folkbytheoak.bsky.social for the 12th year running!
Head over early – their set on the Acorn Stage is at 12.30 on Sunday 20 July.

Listen: Classic Folk Classic Folk with Mike Norris Classic Folk is unique. It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings. From the great source singers to the legends o...

This week's episode of Classic Folk celebrates former EFDSS President, Shirley Collins' 90th Birthday, as well having a few songs about Napoleon and Admiral Nelson (without resorting to ABBA's back catalogue once)
www.efdss.org/listen

Hi! Pop us an email to library@efdss.org I'll let the team know to expect your email. Thanks!

This month's Members' newsletter is in in-boxes up and down the country.
Not a Member? You're missing out on a monthly round up of news and opportunities from the folk scene. Join now for as little as £2 a month for Starter Membership.
Join now. bit.ly/4lk6Gqn

Kuljit and the gang rehearsing for the next Bhangra Ceilidh, this Sunday (13 June) at the Greenwich Park Family Folk Day.
Make a whole weekend of it and you'll be treated to a performance by our London Youth Folk Ensemble on Saturday (12 June) too.
www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk/events/summe...

Listen: Classic Folk Classic Folk with Mike Norris Classic Folk is unique. It mines a rich seam of wonderful folk and roots music and song from around 75 years of recordings. From the great source singers to the legends o...

Amongst the music in this week's Classic Folk episode, there is also an interview with John Marshall Potter, one of the Founders of the @folkeast.bsky.social Festival.
Happy listening!
www.efdss.org.uk/listen

We’re seeking up to three Trustees/Directors to join our Board in November.
We are particularly interested in receiving applications from those with professional experience and knowledge in Finance, Libraries and/or Archives, and Digital Transformation.
Find out more and apply: bit.ly/3TVc8ng