Tending the Flame

These are exceptionally difficult times, but at the English Folk Dance and Song Society we are making every effort to find reasons to remain hopeful.

While our activities have been severely curbed with Cecil Sharp House and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library continuing to be closed, we have been able to deliver some of our activities online.

Regular music courses for adults and our youth ensembles have all embraced the virtual learning world.

Some of our planned training and conference events have done likewise: our first digital Folk Educators Development Day took place on 19 June and the autumn event will also be online, as will our planned Tunes Conference in October.

Our creative bursary programme for folk artists continues which will enable some artists to be supported in the development of new creative ideas rooted in English folk.

We do not know when it will be possible to reopen Cecil Sharp House and the Library, and to undertake some of the planned national activities that are currently on hold. We need to balance the aspiration of ‘business as usual’ against stark financial realities.

In normal times we receive around 45% of our annual income from the hiring of spaces in Cecil Sharp House together with ticket sales. This income not only covers the costs of running our unique Grade II listed arts centre but supports the costs of our Library and Archive, and of our national education and artists development programmes. But for more than 100 days our hire income has been zero. Maintenance bills must still be paid, but we can save some money by keeping the doors locked.

However, we are still finding other ways to celebrate and support English folk music and dance. Here are some of the activities we have been concentrating on since March. 

Sector support

• We continue to inform artists about funding opportunities through our Artists' Development Newsletter and on social media, as well as continuing to run the Alan James Creative Bursary Programme.
• Media coverage for 90th birthday of Cecil Sharp House in June provided opportunities to talk about the effects of the crisis on our sector.
• Our Folk Educators Group continues to provide a valuable forum for folk arts educators through the online forums and virtual Development Days. The next is planned for November.
• Members and organisers of Folk Dance Clubs particularly need guidance, so we have been providing them with up-to-date Covid advice.

Lobbying

• We are lobbying government agencies including the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, HM Revenue & Customs, Chancellor of the Exchequer and more, and working in partnership with other cultural umbrella bodies to highlight the plight of arts organisations and freelance arts workers and the need for financial support.
• We wrote to the BBC regarding the axing of regional folk music shows and the marginalisation of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Show.
• We have been adding support to the high-profile #LetTheMusicPlay campaign, urging the Chancellor of the Exchequer to act now to save jobs, venues, and organisations.
• We are also continuing our important lobbying on many other ongoing concerns of the folk community. This has included providing vocal opposition to attempts by white supremacists to appropriate folk dance for their own racist agenda.
• Please support our activities if you can. Every 'like' on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter is a valuable endorsement of the messages which we need to share as widely as possible. 

Resources and Archives

• The extensive online archives of the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library remain freely available to all and our Library staff are continuing to answer queries from home as efficiently as they can.
• Tabitha Stanmore’s Library Lecture from January, There’s method in the magic: the theory behind folk magic in medieval and early modern England, went live on YouTube in April and we plan to publish more lectures, subject to rights clearances. 
• New materials are being added to our free online Resource Bank of educational materials – most recently Songs of May – Using Folk Arts in Inclusive Settings and Hand Holds in English Folk Dancing.
• You can now dip into the audio archive at Cecil Sharp House in two new In the Archive with... videos, featuring Jon Boden and John Jones: further episodes are in production. 

Classes and Courses

• Our adult music classes at Cecil Sharp House have gone online (Saturday Folk Music Workshops, Monday Folk Choir Workshops and Cecil Sharp House Choir) and will continue online for the autumn term. We are excited that these classes are now accessible by people across England and beyond.
• London Youth Folk Ensemble (for 11 to 19 year olds) and Folk Unlimited (for disabled 12 to 30 year olds, their friends, parents, and carers) will continue online with the hope of running them again from Cecil Sharp House later in the autumn term.
• Sadly, despite considerable efforts, we have been unable to find a way to run evening classes in Morris Dancing and English Country Dancing online.   

Youth Folk activities

• We are preparing to run the National Youth Folk Ensemble’s second online residential in August, the fourth residential week for our 2019/20 'Covid Cohort' with a planned virtual performance on 21 August. 
• Our Youth Folk Sampler Days over May half-term took place online and reached even more young musicians than the physical days in previous years. 
• We hosted a virtual Youth Folk Takeover in early July, including the premiere of a new virtually recorded performance by the London Youth Folk Ensemble. 
• The Ensemble's Programme Manager, Sarah Jones, has been sharing our experiences of online activities with other youth ensembles. You can also read Sarah’s report on their first online residential in April. 

And more...

• We’ve been sharing many other wonderful activities that have been going on in lockdown – including the tenth anniversary celebrations of our dynamic Associate Company, Folk Dance Remixed.

Tending the flame

The next few months are unlikely to any easier than the last ones have been. But, by pulling together and supporting each other, we can continue to celebrate the unique values of folk music and dance, and ensure that we are all ready and able to resume our activities – performances, education, festivals, music sessions, dances – across the nation as soon as the circumstances allow. 

Please consider making a donation – however large or small – to support our ongoing costs during this crisis.

The English Folk Dance and Song Society is a Charity registered in England and Wales, number 305999.