SRFN News no. 24: Folk Factory 1999

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SRFN: Newsletter: Number 24 Autumn 1999: Folk Factory 1999

All views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily constitute SRFN policy.

'Flook' at Folk Factory '99: Hands-on for All!

Photo: the Sheffield Giant, Peace, with minder

As mentioned last time around, the Folk Factory is set for October 2nd & 3rd this year at Kelham Island.

The event will include a wide and varied range of activities for all age groups and persuasions.

Participants will find the workshops invaluable in providing them with a basis for choosing a dance style to learn or an instrument to learn to play, improving their technique, or finding a teacher.

The experience is aimed at beginners and designed to open up a range of possibilities of participation in traditional music, song and dance. It is a means of getting people started or of simply allowing them to have a go on an instrument which may be impossible to find normally in the Sheffield area, such as the Uilleann Pipes.

You can even have a go at Giant carrying, not a common thing except in Brobdingnag or Manresa, a useful skill to learn for the millennium when several people may need carrying home.

Teachers will also find it very useful as the workshops are being co-ordinated to provide, for example, music and dances that relate to each other, songs to cheer up their lessons, contacts with people who can animate schoolchildren to find music, song and dance interesting, and a chance for themselves to have a go with musical instruments both rare and common, easy and difficult, old and new. If there is sufficient demand then we will be happy to provide lesson plans and teaching notes for musical activities for Key Stages 1, 2 & 3.

A special addition to this year's FF will be a workshop by 'Flook' who will be giving instruction in blowing all manner of things (except safes!). Following on for those who are really caught up in the experience there will be additional workshops at Kelham in the following week with Jo Freya and those fine local chaps, Coope, Boyes & Simpson who will expound on the mysteries of Harmony Singing.

All in all, this will be an experience to treasure, valuable insights will be discovered and, who knows? lives may be transformed with the help of our team of animateurs both mature and young, never blasé, but always enthusiastic, skillful, and, above all, accessible.

Advance booking may be difficult for some but it is essential if we are to make the kind of preparations we would like in order to give participants the best possible experience and value for money. If you're interested then please don't hesitate to contact Robin on 0114 234 7143.

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