in

2010

The weather put paid to our efforts to attend the Whittlesea Straw Bear weekend.

Our next event was a walking tour of Leeds City Centre hosted by Great Yorkshire Morris the weather being with us for once. Claro sword, Briggate morris, Leeds morris, Spen Valley sword, Medusa and ourselves enjoyed a day out with GYM

Oxford Folk Festival, 16th - 18th April

A glorious weekend in a beautiful city was our first weekend outing this year. There were many sides dancing in the city over the weekend, although not so many North West sides - hardly surprising in Cotswold country!

We danced hard on both Saturday and Sunday, including a procession. Travelling back and forth into town, often by bus, was a bit arduous and unfortunately the Steamchicken ceilidh was full. However, several of us had our own sing around at the school to round off Saturday night.

Upton on Severn 1-2-3 May

The May Day weekend saw us travelling south westwards to a new venue for us - the Upton on Severn Folk Festival. We found this a pleasant, friendly place with a fairly contained dancing area, which was great for our injured musician (who did brilliantly under the circumstances). The 14 hours of overnight rain on Saturday was a bit disheartening but there was some jolly singing and playing in the clubhouse on the campsite. We danced on Saturday and Sunday amongst friends and new aquaintances, but decided to come home on Sunday rather than stay over till a rather chilly Monday.

Golcar Lily Day 8th May

Our second visit to this village festival on the outskirts of Huddersfield dancing alongside our friends Stockport Morris. We met at the Golcar Brewery for a few dances, then a trip on the free minibus took us out to the Golcar Lily pub and a wonderful farm shop.The views from the hills were stupendous as was the wind! Back in town we danced in the market place, outside the museum and finished off at a pub (nothing new there!)

Bradford City Community Funday 16th May

A group of us took a display of pictures and information to this event at the Bradford City Football Club, our local ground. Unfortunately were were unable to raise a team to dance, but we certainly had one of the most colourful stalls

Flag and Bone Gang's 15th birthday weekend:

We had a great time with our friends from the Harrogate area along with Mortimers Morris and Berkshire Bedlams. The dancing places were great - Masham, Fountains Abbey and Ripon in the Market Place and at the Workhouse Museum, and a lovely lunch at a pub somewhere in between them all. Saturday evening saw us dressed up to the nines for a Cabaret evening with super entertainment from everyone.

On Sunday the rain did ittle to dampen our spirits (apart from some rather wet tent folding) as we danced at Knaresborough Castle and later at the lunch spot at Henshaws Arts and Crafts centre. Well done to the Flag and Bone Gang for organising a great weekend!

Worrall Folk and Ale Festival

This was a small event high on the hills above Sheffield, in a village where many of us are more often seen around Christmas time singing the local carols in a pub. So it was a change to see it in warm sunshine with leaves on the trees! The festival took place outside the Coomunity Centre where a small number of teams danced over lunchtime and again in the early afternoon between other musical offerings.

Ripley Morris Men weekend of dance

An old favourite this one! We gathered together in the lovely village of Ashover in Derbyshire on Friday, camping on the showground next to the village hall with its excellent facilities. Ripley Morris Men did a fantastic job all weekend including cooking breakfast for the multitude on both Saturday and Sunday (often singing their way through) and clearing up before you had time to turn round and help them. On Sunday they even found time to organise an hour's walk around the local area. The company was great - mostly teams who were there last time - and the tours on Saturday visited some beautiful places around the area. The food was amazing all weekend - although after the superb carvery on Saturday during our tour most of the bus was nodding off on the next leg of the journey, and the dancing was less spirited! Saturday was dry but a bit chilly but Sunday was warm and sunny (dry tents!!). Our "borrowed" musician did us proud again - thanks Pete!

Saddleworth Folk Festival, Uppermill
The words "drowned" and "rat" come to mind for this day! A good performance on the stage at the openeing ceremony in the Civic Hall was to be followed by a parade to the park. Unfortunately the police were only allowed to close the road at the appointed time come hell or high water (and it was so) - either to go now or not at all. A decision was taken to go - who knows why? Apparently there is a drought and a hosepipe ban in that part of the world, but this must surely have lifted it! The kit was still damp, nay wet, in the afternoon, although the torrential downpours did cease eventually and the sun came out later on nearly drying us off. The dance timetable was abandoned, but there was a good display outside the Museum in mid-afternoon by all the teams. Hopefully the clogs will have dried out before next weekend........

Queen's Oak/Rose and Castle, Northampton
One of our favourite weekends each year lived up to expectations once again! We met many friends as usual (some we'd seen only a couple of weeks previously) and as they say, a good time was had by all. Over 200 people were gathered for the weekend with good camping facilities and great food; the weather was excellent too. We went to yet more places we'd never seen before after numerous visits to the area. The good people of Kettering seemed a little surprised when we took over their new amphitheatre during the afternoon! On Sunday we finished off the weekend at Stoke Bruerne by the canal adding a splash of colour to the area.

Warwick Folk Festival - July 24th to 25th

It's several years since we danced at Warwick but it was just as we remembered it - very friendly, very big, plenty of food stalls, a large beer tent, lots of excellent dance teams and high quality entertainment around the site. The weather was excellent for us - certainly better than at Saddleworth! We taught a workshop dance on Saturday morning with 2 good sets, danced in several spots around town and on the site on both days and took part in the (very long) processsion on Saturday. It was great to have a "big band" playing for us again, a good number of dancers and an excellent support team to help with equipment.The days were rather long with not much time in between spots but very enjoyable. A great festival!