Festivals

May Day (up)

May Day is traditionally the start of the Morris season. We get up at four o'clock in the morning and dance in the car park at the top of Bluebell Hill near Rochester.

May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations, regardless of the locally prevalent political or religious establishment.

Traditional English May Day rites and celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and celebrations involving a Maypole. Much of this tradition may derive from the pagan Anglo-Saxon customs held during "Þrimilci-monaþ" (the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of May meaning Month of Three Milkings), and also to a lesser extent the Celtic celebration of Beltane.

May Day has been a traditional day of festivities throughout the centuries. It is most associated with towns and villages celebrating springtime fertility and revelry with fetes and community gatherings.

Rochester Sweeps Festival (up)

Medway’s annual Sweeps Festival recreates the joy and laughter enjoyed by the chimney sweeps at their traditional holiday: the one time of the year the sweeps could leave the soot behind and have some fun. The sweeps’ holiday was traditionally held on 1 May each year. Locally, they used to mark the occasion by staging a procession through the streets of Rochester.

Their fun continued with the Jack-in-the-Green ceremony, a seven-foot character that they used to waken at dawn on Blue Bell Hill, Chatham. The Jack-in-the-Green would walk with the chimney sweeps in their parade. When the Climbing Boys’ Act 1868 made it illegal to employ young boys to carry out the trade, the traditional procession gradually began to fade. The final May celebration was held in the early 1900s.

The modern day Rochester Sweeps Festival is a colourful mix of music, dancing and entertainment with more than 80 Morris sides and entertainers celebrating throughout the three-day festival.

The festival was revived in 1981 by local businessman Gordon Newton, a keen historian, he decided it was time to bring it back and over the years he has helped develop the festival into what it is today – an extravaganza of traditional Britain.

Gordon researched the Sweeps’ tradition and organised a small parade, involving local Morris teams. In time, Medway Council took over organisation of the festival but Gordon remained actively involved. Today he is festival producer and plays melodeon for several Morris teams. Gordon’s own Morris team, the Motley Morris, is custodian of Jack-in-the-Green. Doug Hudson is the festival’s music director, a role he has held for 10 years. Doug is well known on the local and national folk scene. Visit the Festival website at www.medway.gov.uk/sweepsfestival

Aylesford Village Festival (up)

Click here to see our dedicated page for the Aylesford Village Festival.

Ely Folk Festival (up)

Visit the Festival website at www.elyfolk.co.uk/

Broadstairs Folk Week (up)

During Folk Week, life in Broadstairs really is set to music. In the parks, pubs, gardens, beaches and promenade; musicians - from the highly professional to the inexperienced amateur - get together in impromptu sessions whilst Morris dancers, Appalachian clog dancers, rapper sword dancers and many others demonstrate their skills on the streets and along the prom.

There really is a festival vibe in the town – nobody who arrives in Broadstairs during Folk Week wonders whether there is an event taking place – it’s inescapable – in the best possible way!

Broadstairs Folk Week began in 1965 as one man’s passion – the late Jack Hamilton decided that the lovely seaside town of Broadstairs was the perfect location for a folk festival. There were many other people in the early days that played key roles in the organization of Folk Week and we have wonderful archive of photos that we hope to share with you on the website soon.

Broadstairs Folk Week has grown organically – Pierremont Park in the middle of the town became a focal point for the Folk Shows and many other elements of the festival that are still in place today began in the late sixties and early seventies. The festival has had time to grow and develop in its own time and soon turned into the annual invasion of folkies which has become a highlight of the year – both for local people and visitors.

Folk Week has evolved into a highly successful event that has retained as many of the features so loved by loyal Season Ticket buyers as well as broadening out the artistic programme to attract and develop new audiences.

The key to all the years of organizing, cajoling, fund-raising, rabble-rousing and sweet-talking that has kept Broadstairs Folk Week going for over forty years is quite simple – people love it.

Visit the Festival website at www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk/

Faversham Hop Festival (up)

For the whole weekend commencing Saturday 30 August 2008 the town of Faversham will be home to the annual Faversham International Hop Festival. A traditional, fun festival set in the picturesque medieval town's square and surrounding streets, celebrating the olden days of hop picking in Kent. With music to suit eclectic tastes, children's entertainers, professional street theatre, stilt walkers, Morris dancing, craft fare, and ceilidh, it's a weekend for family and friends to enjoy! Visit the Festival website at www.faversham.org

Deal Maritime Festival (up)

The festival originated in 1996 as the Sea Shanty Festival, and was the closing celebration to a year-long programme of events organised by Dover District Council celebrating 'The spirit of the Sea'. Following its extraordinary success and support by the local community and business sector, a team was established to ensure delivery of the festival as an annual celebration in the maritime town of Deal.
The programme was originally planned as a seasonal "shoulder event" to the holiday periods, to help prolong the increased tourism activity in the town, serving to enhance the atmosphere and increase its vibrancy. It was also intended that the festival has the potential to promote the town of Deal and add to its sense of place and identity.

From 1996 to 2000, the event built upon the strengths of the first festival, developing the programme of folk music, which encouraged further participation by the local community and increased attendance from visitors to the area. The broadening of the programme led to the name being changed in 2001 to the Deal Maritime Folk Festival. In previous years the programme has included a free street entertainment programme, children's events, storytelling, maritime walks and talks, exhibitions by local artists and craftspeople, workshops, ceilidhs and concerts.

In 2003 Dover District Council underwent a major restructuring, and due to reduced budgets and manpower were unable to continue the festival, however a group of local musicians took on the task forming a company (Deal Folk Festival) to organise and run this popular event. Visit the Festival website at www.dealmaritimefolkfestival.org.uk/

Tenterden Folk Festival (up)

Tenterden, situated in the ancient Weald of Kent, about 12 miles west of Ashford, is a friendly, family folk festival. Tenterden features one of the widest High Streets in the country, lined with historic and listed buildings, numerous pubs and restaurants and green verges.

The festival also plays host to a wide selection of Morris sides and other dance display teams, plus traditional singing workshops, folk trains (musicians and other performers on the steam train) and English Barn Dance.

Expect a Friday evening concert at the Tenterden Club, regular music showcase spots in the garden of the Woolpack on both Saturday and Sunday, a Saturday evening concert at the Sinden Theatre, and possibly a concert on Sunday afternoon in the Tenterden Club. Visit the Festival website at www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/tenterden/2008/