Bromyard's got Bells

The sun came out for a glorious autumnal weekend at the Bromyard Folk Festival in Herefordshire. In the town’s pubs and yards there was enough finger in the ear singing, bells on the knees dancing and melodeon over the shoulder jamming to keep a folk fan entertained for the weekend without ever venturing into the actual Festival. The several thousand who do attend get value for their money from a programme of quality Concerts, Performances and Ceilidhs running from Friday evening through to Sunday night. The beer tent had a choice of more than a dozen real ales and seven ciders with plenty more in the pubs, which goes some way to explaining the convivial atmosphere over the weekend. Perhaps the number of Morris dancers helps too, they were ubiquitous and even the scary looking ones turn out to be quite friendly.

The Festival is set in meadows adjacent to the river Frome and extends onto Bromyard Town's football pitch. The Field Arena is a low wooden stage at the centre of the Festival which hosts Morris dancing performances throughout the day. The Arena is flanked by a row of food stalls selling the decent fare; chips, curry and jerk chicken. Dave Jone's Bar is next to the Arena stage which keeps the dancers well lubricated. The Ceilidh House is on hardstanding at one end of the avenue formed by these stalls. At the other end of this avenue by Jan's Van and the Kids Area a row of instrument stalls leads to The Wye Valley Brewery stage. Popular folk acts like Faustus, Seth Lakeman, Roy Bailey, and The Demon Barbers will take to this Stage over the weekend. Behind the Ceilidh Tent is the Arts Centre which sounds very grand but is a tent on a football pitch which acts as a second stage. There’s a Craft Tent between Wye Valley Brewery Stage and Ceilidh House which has some terrific stalls selling allsorts from the de rigueur pewter mugs and fimo fridge magnets to hobby horses and clogs. Thankfully there is no fairy stuff on sale at Bromyard.

Surrounding the site are three fields of camping. Caravans, Campervans and Motorhomes are the lodging of choice for the experienced folkies who attend this Festival, from a distance the campsite is a sea of white roofs and awnings. Those not fortunate enough to have such accommodation still feel some of the benefit as there is no morning queue for the loo, most use their onboard facilities. This is probably not quite enough to make up for not having a cooker, fridge, sink, sofa, shower, satellite TV, mattress and your own toilet, but hey.

Over the river and uphill from the site in Bromyard town the Pubs and Inns play host to more Morris sides and musicians. The Falcon Hotel's lounge has a pretty much non stop, everyone welcome, jam all weekend. The Hotel's attractively built medieval style Mews puts on scheduled concerts and events for Festival ticketholders including the Fred Jordan Memorial singing competition. In the square outside the Hop Pole Morris sides take turns to put on displays all day long, there are also shows in the yards of the Crown & Sceptre and The Rose & Lion throughout the weekend. The Bay Horse seems to be the spot for lusty singers whose shanties reverberate around the main streets of the town. Bromyard is a small, friendly festival with quality top of the bill acts balanced by the simple, authentic feel of a long running successful event. It attracts an rag tag collection of folkies, collie dogs and Morris dancers than you could shake a stick at. A folk festival with bells on!

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