Championing the folk arts

 
We are the national development agency for preserving, protecting, disseminating and promoting the folk arts at the heart of England’s rich and diverse cultural landscape 

Photo by Craig Newman, courtesy of Folk Dance Remixed

Call for papers: Traditional Tunes and Popular Airs A two-day conference to be held on Saturday 8 – Sunday 9 November 2025 At @cecilsharphouse, London NW1 Proposals are invited for presentations (20 minutes + 10 minutes for discussion) on any aspect of the topic. The conference aims to bring together researchers working on ‘traditional’ and ‘popular’ tunes as transmitted and transformed in all manner of musical styles and genres, performance contexts, levels of society, historical periods, and geographical locations. We welcome a broad range of approaches, including historical research and ethnographic studies to illuminate melodic interrelationships. Relevant areas include music for performative dance (such as morris, sword, clog and other forms of step and percussive dance, Scottish, Irish and Welsh dance) and participatory dance (social, country, ceilidh/ceili), instrumental music, ballad operas and theatrical works, religious music, broadside balladry, minstrelsy, music hall, the pleasure gardens, domestic music-making, national and folk music, and children’s songs. Deadline for submission: 30 June 2025. Find out more - link in bio 'Latest News' #CallForPapers #MusicHistory #FolkMusic

Friday April 04

Read our interview with Kuljit Bhamra @kuljit.bhamra MBE, one of the most prolific musicians, composers and record producers on the British Asian music scene, and co-creator of our Bhangra Ceilidh. "I have been fortunate enough to have played and collaborated in many countries worldwide. From a technical and musical-structure point of view, I can hear similarities in all types of folk music – be it African, Indian, English, Norwegian or Thai. It’s easy to recognise a chorus and verse structure (A section/B section). Many folk tunes are danceable and for that reason, they are musically-structured so that the listeners recognise certain bits and can sing, hum or dance along." Read the full interview on our website - click 'Latest News' link in bio. #FolkMusic #FolkDance #Bhangra #CeilidhDancing

Thursday April 03

Three Folk Tunes for Secondary Schools For this month's Learning Resource, we have selected this trio of folk tunes, put together by folk musician Oli Matthews for use with secondary school music and dance students. The pack contains some activity suggestions for teaching, as well as recordings of the tunes for you to use and enjoy. Image: Oli Matthews teaching Music GCSE group. Photo by Roswitha Chesher Click on 'Resource Bank' in the link in bio.

Wednesday April 02