Tenterden Folk Festival 2009

Friday 2^nd to Sunday 4^th October

The Main Event, the magazine for event organisers, recently reported that festivals are now seen as a cheap holiday rather than an expensive concert and Tenterden Folk Festival typifies this. Ticket prices have been kept low and the festival offers a full weekend of inexpensive entertainment in one of the most beautiful towns in the Weald of Kent. Tenterden, the jewel of the Weald, has several very good hotels and there are numerous local bed and breakfast establishments and several nearby small commercial campsites as well as the festival’s own temporary Town Centre campsite available to ticket holders for the weekend. As well as the Festival you can take the opportunity to visit the historic Kent and East Sussex Railway, Tenterden Vineyards and Biddenden Vineyard and Cider Works, various National Trust properties and other local tourist attracts as well as Tenterden’s own local pubs, restaurants and shops.

The Festival Barn Dance was, for the first time in 2008, held on Friday evening and designated the Welcome Barn Dance. This proved to be a great success so this formula is being repeated for 2009. The Welcome Barn Dance will be held at The Tenterden Club on Friday 2^nd October from 8.00 p.m. and will feature Geckoes with caller Will Hall.

Geckoes are one of the top dance bands on the English Ceilidh scene having evolved out of the tradition of country dances of the British Isles, Europe and America. The style and mood of the dancing is typified by its liveliness and exuberance and Geckoes' music has all the energy and style that it takes to fill a floor with hundreds of delighted, and by the end of the evening somewhat sweaty, dancers. Geckoes are a favourite attraction at dance clubs and major folk festivals including Chippenham, Sidmouth, Towersey, Warwick, Whitby and many others. The band comprises Andy Cheyne on bass guitars, acoustic guitar, mandolin, bouzouki and fiddle; Andy Turner on Anglo concertinas and one-row melodeon; Caroline Ritson on fiddle; Dave Parry on melodeons; Tom Miller on electric and acoustic guitars and keyboards; together will Will Hall who will call the dances.

Andy Turner is of course well know in Kent having been brought up in Ashford and frequented local folk clubs in the late 1970 before playing with the likes of the Oyster Band and Oyster Morris and later joining Magpie Lane and the Mellstock Band, as well as working with Mat Green and Chris Wood.

Oyster Girls and Hovelling Boys, a special concert of folk songs from and about Kent, will also feature Andy Turner as well as Pete Castle, Bob Kenward and Roger Resch, The Millen Family, Marian Button and Dave ‘the resident poet’ Mason.

The Tenterden Club is set to be a major venue for Tenterden Folk Festival 2009 having been made available to the festival for the whole weekend. The Club’s Moulton Hall will be used for the Welcome Barn Dance and several concerts and the adjoining Evans Bar will also be used for a number of workshops over the weekend as well as being open to sell real ale and other refreshments to festival goers during the dances and concerts.

Book now:

To buy your tickets, book your craft fair or music fair pitch, place an advert in the enlarged souvenir programme or if you would like to be otherwise involved in the Festival contact us now.

Festival information:

More details of Tenterden Folk Festival 2009 guests, accommodation and camping are now being posted on our website at www.tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk.

To receive our regular email updates send an email to info@tenterdenfolkfestival.org.uk with "add to festival news list" in the subject box.

Alan Castle – Festival Director

13^th April 2009

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Last updated 13^th April 2009

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