The focus of Sidmouth Folk Week 2008 will again be in the centre of Sidmouth, Devon and on the sea front. The dates for 2008 are Friday 1st August to Friday 8th August.
The programme for the event is:
Thursday 31st July:
Eliza Carthy opens the Festival at the Ham Marquee.
Friday 1st August:
Ham Evening Concert - Show of Hands; Festival Clubhouse - Grand Union; Bulverton Marquee - Boka Halat.
Saturday 2nd August:
Ham Evening Concert - John Tams & Barry Coope, Jim Moray; Manor Pavilion - Timo Alakotila, Karen Tweed; Festival Clubhouse - Boldwood, Steamchicken; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage Concert - Park Bench Social Club, Sara Grey, Keiron Means & Ben Paley, Boldwood.
Sunday 3rd August:
Ham Evening Concert - Martin Hayes & Dennis Cahill; Damien O'Kane, Shona Kipling & Cormac Byrne; Festival Clubhouse - Dalla, Asha; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage Concert - Dick Gaughan, The Shee, Geordie McIntyre & Alison McMorland.
Monday 4th August:
Ham Evening Concert - Karen Tweed & Friends, including Circa Compania; Festival Clubhouse - Quinteto Mambojambo, Trinculo; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage - World of Dance; Ham Marquee - Breabach.
Tuesday 5th August:
Ham Evening Concert - Jo Freya's Lal Waterson Project; Festival Clubhouse - Gadarene, The Maerlock Big Band; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage Concert - Roy Bailey, Reg Meuros & Jackie Oates, Pete Coe.
Wednesday 6th August:
Ham Evening Concert - Kathryn Tickell, Border Fiddles; Festival Clubhouse - Blowzabella; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage Concert - Karine Polwart, Alistair Russell & Chris Parkinson, Damien Barber & Mike Wilson.
Thursday 7th August:
Ham Evening Concert - Martin Simpson with Andy Cutting, Andy Seward & Kellie While, 422; Festival Clubhouse - Wheeler Street, 422; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage - World of Dance, The Demon Barber Roadshow.
Friday 8th August:
Ham Evening Concert - The Poozies, Chris Wood; Festival Clubhouse - Demon Barbers Fancy Dress Party, Token Women; Ham Afternoon Hobgoblin Stage Concert - Lisa Knapp, Bella Hardy & Chris Sherburn, Craig, Morgan, Robson.
Other acts at unknown venues include Isambarde. As well as live music, expect ceilidh dances, social dance bands & callers, workshops, a dance display, processions, craft fair, a themed children's festival, fun and games and more, with the festival spread across several venues throughout the town, over an 8 day period.
Tickets
Tickets are on sale priced as follows:
Adult season then £155; young adult season (18-24) £116; youth (12-17) season then £78; Child (7-11) season £39; Children under 7 have free entry. To buy tickets, click here.
Ham evening season tickets are priced at £55 for adults; young adult Ham season ticket £45; youth & child Ham season ticket £30. A limited number of discount price advance tickets are on sale for individual events at the Ham Marquee, Manor Pavilion and Bulverton Marquee. To download a booking form in PDF format for these, click here.
Camping charges
Campsite Adult (18+) £46; Campsite Youth (12-17) £30; Campsite Child under 12 Free; Campsite Family deal £120; and Caravan supplement £20.
To buy tickets click here.
There will also be several workshops, some are planned as a series, with a performance at the end of the week. Singers can join the Festival Choir with Sandre Kerr, while Craig;Morgan;Robson will be leading a series of harmony workshops. There are also workshops on Gregorian Chant, Shape-Note and West Gallery singing in the Parish Church, which also hosts a singalong evening of Sankey & Moody songs.
Musicians can choose to be in John Kirkpatrick's Big Band or the Festival Ceilidh Band. There are individual workshops on all sorts of instruments, at different levels from concertina for beginners, melodeon, mandolin, bodhran and fiddle, to masterclasses by accordionist Karen Tweed and Show of Hands' Phil Beer on guitar.
The locally-based Jambo Tanzania Project, which raises money to bring clean water to a village in Tanzania, will be providing workshops on East African drumming. There’s also the West Country Concertina Players drop-in session in All Saints Hall every morning. Plus fringe sessions in many of the pubs.
Storytelling workshops led by experts like Taffy Thomas and Indian storyteller Peter Chand as well as storytelling circles will also be available. There are also talks on such subjects as Thomas Hardy and the Dorset Christmas Mummers, and Ralph Vaughan Williams and English Folk Song.
Sidmouth FolkWeek offers a wealth of dance options, taking in all manner of styles from American Square to North West Morris; Appalachian clogging to Manx dancing; Rapper Sword to French bourrés and lots more, either learning the techniques or just dancing for the fun of it!
More information will be here when available.
eFestivals is 
