Hebden Bridge Folk Roots Festival - The Terrace Room
Saturday 10th June and Sunday 11th June
Free, no need to book
Join us as part of Hebden Bridge Folks Roots Festival, for a free series of folk talks at the Town Hall on Saturday, and free children’s music workshops on
Hebden Folk Roots Festival returns this weekend for a celebration of all things folk in a variety of venues across the town. The festival is run by a volunteer group of musicians, enthusiasts and folk-loving people - who all live in and around Hebden Bridge - with a mixture of music, dance and street performance, as well as folktales and more!
Saturday 10th June
Folk Talks
12:00pm - 1:00pm
Johnny Campbell
Class Trespass: How Radical Histories Interlink with Folk Music and Class Struggles
This talk will encompass the mass Trespass events of old, the modern Right to Roam movement and how Folk music has always been an integral part of struggles for justice. How he left has always used music and culture to spread it's message.
Johnny Campbell is a musician from West Yorkshire and focuses on Northern English radical song and story and the connection (and disconnection) to the land. He's also a writer for Britain's biggest-selling outdoor magazine, Country Walking, and an advocate for the Right to Roam campaign.
1:20pm - 2:20pm
Emily Oldfield
Off the (b)eaten track – A Talk Exploring the Local Landscape and Folk Customs, Through Food!
So often contemporary ‘food culture’ can seem like an exclusive field – encompassing restaurants, reviews, arguments about ‘taste’… and usually involving money. It can feel divisive. Yet, the need for food is universal; it connects us to each other and our surroundings, across time. In this talk, Emily Oldfield will explore how the human histories in this landscape have been shaped by food and how food has shaped them – through agriculture, industry, song and story. Routes and recipes intertwine to offer a different approach to this area of the North, with a determination to uncover often-obscured working-class histories that make this place what it is.
Emily is a writer and poet currently working on Scraps, a book following her journey from Burnley (where she was born) to West Yorkshire (where she lives now), wandering the ways of trade and transportation, in search of a much more far-reaching food culture.
2:40pm - 3:40pm
Joe Solo
Where HAVE all the flowers gone?
What do Sir Isaac Newton, Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, and Monty Python have in common? They have all helped explain the role of Folk music in shaping society. In this talk, we'll explore the symbiosis between Folk and Punk, the urgent need to re-embrace protest, and why one pithy joke in Life Of Brian defines the failure of the Left to combat the rise of Neoliberalism like nothing else.
Joe Solo is an award-winning musician, writer, poet, activist, broadcaster, and washing machine engineer from Scarborough.
The Festival is not pre-booking tickets for talks - please arrive in good time on Saturday before the talk you wish to watch.
Sunday 11th June
Children’s Folk Music Workshops
11:00am - 12:00pm
Ages 3-8
This workshop is for children between the ages of 3-8. Participants will have a chance to learn and sing folk songs from across the globe, to play percussion instruments, play musical games, and learn more about the instruments and music being played. Parents must be present throughout the performance. Parents are welcome to bring their own instruments as well as for their children. No musical experience or knowledge is necessary.
Limited places - please sign up here: https://HBFRFchildrensfolkmusicworkshop1.eventbrite.co.uk
The workshop will be led by:
Simon Robinson.
Simon is a folk musician, music educator and workshop leader from Leeds, Yorkshire, who plays a wide repertoire of music, ranging from American mountain songs and ballads, British folk songs and blues and spirituals (as well as the occasional pop smash hit!!). As well as his career in music performance, Simon is also a passionate music educator and facilitator, teaching banjo, guitar and ukulele privately, as well as working in a number of SEN settings and Care Homes. He works for a number of charities and organisations, including Live Music Now, The Amber Trust and Artforms delivering music workshops and concerts all over the country and internationally.
Pete Dilley
Pete is a singer/songwriter and folk performer who plays a variety of instruments. Originally from the north-east, his own material is very informed from the traditional music of the British isles and the US, as well as his singer/song writing forebears. Now a resident in Todmorden, he helped establish the Calder Youth Folk project, and he continues to help tutor the group.
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Ages 8+
This workshop is aimed at children 8+ who are learning an instrument. The aim will be to teach a folk tune/song 'by ear' that we can all play together at the end. The song or tune will be decided when we get a sense of how many singers join, as well as the instruments and musical abilities present. Participants are expected to bring their own instruments and have a basic musical knowledge, or be prepared to sing a part. Parents are welcome to stay (and we would encourage those with children below 10 to do so).
Limited places - please sign up here: https://HBFRFchildrensfolkmusicworkshop2.eventbrite.co.uk
The workshop will be led by:
Simon Robinson.
Simon is a folk musician, music educator and workshop leader from Leeds, Yorkshire, who plays a wide repertoire of music, ranging from American mountain songs and ballads, British folk songs and blues and spirituals (as well as the occasional pop smash hit!!). As well as his career in music performance, Simon is also a passionate music educator and facilitator, teaching banjo, guitar and ukulele privately, as well as working in a number of SEN settings and Care Homes. He works for a number of charities and organisations, including Live Music Now, The Amber Trust and Artforms delivering music workshops and concerts all over the country and internationally.
Pete Dilley
Pete is a singer/songwriter and folk performer who plays a variety of instruments. Originally from the north-east, his own material is very informed from the traditional music of the British isles and the US, as well as his singer/song writing forebears. Now a resident in Todmorden, he helped establish the Calder Youth Folk project, and he continues to help tutor the group.