Sidmouth Folk Week 2010: social dance and serious ceilidh - how long before it dies completely at Sidmouth?

Social dance and serious ceilidh dance (as opposed to thrashing about at Bulverton with kids who don't know what they are doing) used to be at the heart of Sidmouth International Festival. For several years many social dancers have supported the revived festival (Folk Week) despite a mixture of mediocre venues and poor dance floors. However, ever since maybe 2008, social dance has been in decline and with a notable fall in numbers in 2010 compared with 2009. The days of supporting aspects of FolkWeek in the hope that one day they might get a lot better seem to be over.

What follows is necessarily a collection of anecdotes but with a theme - if serious dance and the promotion of folk dancing is to survive at Sidmouth, better venues must be provided, and ideally in town. Only then may the decline of recent years be slowly reversed.

Subindex of pages for this page (folk145) and in no particular order of importance: use your browser back button to return from these subpages.

145a: Social Dance - a priority, but for whom?

145b: So what happened in 2010?

145c: French and Breton dancing - and Blowzabella.

145d: Blackmore events

145e: Irish Set Dance and Ceilidh

145f: Can the decline in social dance be halted or reversed?

145g: Alternative social dance venues

145h: Bulverton dance marquee

145i: The Blackmore dance floor.


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