News during May/June 2005 - Sidmouth Folk Week
A craft marquee will be open in Blackmore Gardens - entrance will be free and the stallholders are helping to sponsor the marquee and publicity. Events for young people are also being held in Blackmore Gardens, as are some evening ceilidhs. This particular development has long been urged by the SeeRed author.
People interested in being a stallholder should contact Nigel Hartwright on 07976 885774 - this contact information is from an article in the Sidmouth Herald of 6 May 2005.
The most welcome news is that some of the dancing in the shape of evening ceilidhs is once again to be held in Blackmore Gardens in the centre of town. Full details are given on impressive new webpages on www.lastminuteceilidhs.com, also on the most recent edition of www.sidmouthfolkweek.co.uk. The events are being organised by Great Western Morris in Exeter. For ticket arrangements see folk51 and folk51a for more details.
An administrative development is that Councillor Tony Reed has agreed to become President of the 2005 Folk Week festival. Martin Carthy has agreed to be the patron, following on from his role as patron of the former International Festival.
As of 11 June the full dance programme has been made available for the social dances - so you can now choose to pick and mix between social dances and in-town ceilidhs. People who bought £90 social dance tickets a long time ago can cancel them up to 30 June if they wish instead to do a mix of social and ceilidh dances. This again is a welcome development. See page folk47 for details.
Tickets for the main concerts (Kathryn Tickell, Show of Hands etc) in the Ham are selling well, the LNEs and ceilidhs much less so. There is more discussion on the mudcat website - look for the Sidmouth Tickets thread.